What exactly is an EMM solution?

From MDM to MAM, MIM and MCM, to EMM for BYOD and COSU. What does it all mean? Absurd poetry? A crossword puzzle? Different genres of Electronic Body Music? Roman numerals? No, it is the rapid development of technology for businesses to take control of their mobile devices. We can also add UEM to the list.

You can quite often follow the increasing complexity of a technology by noting the number of abbreviations for technical terms: the more abbreviations, the more complex the technology. And the development of technology follows the increasing complexity of an industry, society or market. This is exactly what we have seen and are seeing happen in companies’ requirements and needs for being mobile.

For both blue- and white-collar workers, the need to be able to work anywhere with a mobile connection is growing. Company mobile fleets are getting bigger and bigger. So too are the needs and requirements for protecting information and being able to control mobile devices remotely. This can be anything from updating apps for office workers and service personnel who work from home to following the delivery of goods or being able to quickly push out messages on traffic accidents or queues forming for drivers, for example.

You cannot close the office

What is increasing the complexity even more, and which we sometimes do not think about, is that mobile devices are used or connected 24 hours a day. You cannot close the office, shut the door and go home. Those responsible for managing a company’s mobile fleet must be able to keep track of it around the clock in order to secure and maintain it. Added to this, many employees use their own mobiles at work (BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device) or have their company mobile (COSU, or Corporate-Owned Single-Use) connected to their private device.

Fredrich Pekár, Deputy Consulting & Project Delivery Manager at Optidev, has extensive experience in helping customers in the logistics, transport and security industry with both MDM and EMM solutions. What’s the difference?

“The simple answer is that Enterprise Mobility Management, or EMM, is enterprise management of hardware, software and content. EMM is the next generation of Mobile Device Management, or MDM. With EMM, a company can control, protect and update mobile devices remotely. They can also quickly deliver business-critical apps and check where mobile devices are, what their status is and how the information in them is managed.”

Pekár explains that an EMM solution contains a number of components, including Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Mobile Content Management (MCM). While MDM controls functions in the mobile devices, MAM manages app settings and MCM can control who can view certain websites and files and whether they can edit, share, download or perform other actions.

Do I need an EMM solution?

The reason why a growing number of companies are using EMM is that it gives them an overview of, and ability to manage, all mobile devices centrally, which closes security holes where information can leak out. An EMM solution also streamlines both the business and the individual employee’s work by being able to deliver information and software updates quickly.

“It will also become more and more important for companies to be able to limit the use of mobile devices to specific functions for individual employees or directly lock and track a stolen or lost mobile. EMM also provides access to a wealth of information in real-time. For example, a transport company can follow the individual driver,” says Pekár.

Companies cannot keep up

And what about UEM, or Unified Endpoint Management? Basically, it is an interface that covers everything that has an internet connection in a business: mobile devices, servers, watches, etc. UEM allows everything to be managed from just one console.

“The technical development involved in taking and assuming control of everything that is connected is proceeding rapidly. Unfortunately, there are many companies that are not keeping up. They are becoming ever more mobile, but they do not have the solutions to secure their systems. Some companies do not think they are big enough for an EMM solution. But you don’t need to have many employees in the field or working from home in order for a solution to streamline and secure your business,” concludes Optidev’s Fredrich Pekár.