The velocity of change in mobility has a massive impact on how we work, live, communicate and collaborate. Sure, there have been major technology shifts before—and there will be others—but the transformations now are moving at warp speed.
As we speak with our customers about their mobility and BYOD requirements, a number of questions emerge, such as: “How do we balance security requirements with user experience?” and “How do we avoid deploying and managing multiple management systems?” Customers also want to “future proof” their environments so they can keep pace with evolving business demands.
All great questions and valid concerns, especially given the amount and type of data that businesses generate and all the ways it’s consumed, accessed and shared. Changing attitudes about work-life balance also are driving the acceleration of mobility while creating different requirements and new complexities.
Recently, I spoke with Dana Gardner, analyst at Interarbor Solutions during an enterprise mobility podcast about the importance of striking the right balance between security and mobile workforce productivity. We’ve both followed the evolving mobility story at Green Clinic Health System, a Dell customer that continues to achieve the optimal balance by giving doctors, nurses and clinicians mobile access to vital electronic medical record (EMR) systems without compromising security or HIPAA compliance.
As more clinical and EMR systems get delivered as native iOS apps, Jason Thomas, CIO and IT Director at Green Clinic, is seeking new secure workspaces to separate regulated information from personal data on tablets or smartphones. Moreover, he is building a comprehensive enablement strategy to keep their mobility evolution in balance in the future.
Many organizations are struggling to balance evolving mobility strategies. In some cases, it’s exceedingly difficult to administer all the tools they’ve embraced to manage devices, apps and users. In other cases, line-of-business stakeholders who needed to move quicker than IT would permit, circumvented IT altogether to use whatever productivity tool could help get the jobs done faster or better.
To strike the right balance, companies need an overarching mobile enablement framework that streamlines mobility management, elevates security and improves workforce productivity. Today, I’m excited to share that Dell is leveraging its hardware and software expertise to help customers achieve mobility equilibrium. We’re taking a different, more holistic approach to managing fixed and mobile endpoints without impacting the user experience or threatening employees’ personal privacy.
Dell™ Enterprise Mobility Management is an end-to-end mobile enablement offering that blends best-in-class security technologies, new container-based secure workspace apps and a flexible deployment model.
With Dell EMM, we’re envisioning a better way to help customers more easily configure and define security and compliance for corporate- and employee-owned iOS and Android smartphones; Windows, Android and iOS tablets; Linux, Mac and Windows laptops and desktops; as well as thin and zero cloud clients. We’re also bringing new container-based apps to ease BYOD management and increase user adoption.
For employee-owned smartphones and tablets, Dell™ Mobile Workspace will give users secure access to corporate data and productivity tools, including email, calendar, contacts, secure mobile browser and secure local file explorer. For employee-owned PCs and Macs, Dell™ Desktop Workspace will provide a secure Microsoft Windows image that can be integrated seamlessly with existing IT infrastructures.
Michael Loftus, VP of Workspace Services, Employee Technology & Network Services at TD Bank, is one of the first customers to get a peek at our Mobile Workspace app. After seeing it in action, here’s what he had to say, “I am really impressed by Dell’s vision to deliver managed workspaces across multiple use cases and platforms, especially as the need for consistent workspaces regardless of device, location or other variables is becoming a major IT imperative. With Dell Mobile Workspace, Dell is innovatively providing full collaboration—including integrating messaging, documents, and real-time communication—to secure, containerized workspaces.”
We can’t wait to demonstrate how Dell EMM will make it much easier for TD Bank and all our customers to consolidate their mobility requirements and unify enablement strategies. As part of our prescriptive approach, we’re doing what Dell does best—blending strategic IP and expertise in hardware, software, networking and services—to help customers strike the optimal mobility balance.
Drop me a line at Tom_Kendra@Dell.com to share your thoughts on how to strike the right mobility balance in your organization.