Small businesses like yours smell real good to pesky cyberpunks, because you’re just so much easier to breach. Your budget is tight and your workforce is tiny, so you don’t have the spare people or expertise for data security that the big corps do. Don’t worry, we got you.
We bang on about mobile device management (MDM) a lot, because it’s the foundation of secure-yet-scalable growth for any business. But small business device management is unique. Let’s take a look at why.
First, What Is Mobile Device Management?
MDM is an awesome mix of strategy, policy, and software that is used to keep your fleet of mobile devices standardized and updated, with the aim of keeping the device and the data on it secure. There are a ton of benefits to having a reliable MDM strategy, the most delicious being that it protects sensitive data from being accessed by unauthorized employees or falling into the sweaty hands of villainous cyber jerks.
Small Business Device Management Hits Differently
When it comes to small business device management, the only difference is that with larger companies, the scale is grander. Whether your organization has 15 or 15,000 employees, the necessity to secure, manage, and keep track of every device is exactly the same.
Fat corporations have the resources to put Fort Knox-style MDM in place. But for small businesses, resources are tight, so it’s hard to put together your own brand of MDM. Small business mobile device management does hit differently because you're laying the foundation for how well your MDM strategy can scale with you. An MDM duct-taped together could disintegrate under the pressures of growth, which means you’ll have to factor growth in when you start. It can get ugly.
Expertise and Bandwidth: Twin Challenges of Evil
A smaller workforce typically means that employees are carrying the weight of multiple roles, including roles outside of their training and skill set. Even for a tech-savvy IT specialist, maintaining a solid MDM is knackering.
The MDM Process
| Testing | Carrying out thorough testing when a new version of macOS or Windows is released to make sure nothing breaks. |
| Configuring | Ensuring that MDM configurations meet all statutory and contractual requirements. |
| Standardizing | Provisioning all iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, and Android devices and keeping them standardized. |
| Monitoring | Keeping the fleet of computers and mobile devices well-behaved. Monitoring the health of all devices, including backup status, drive capacity, RAM health, system errors, and more. |
So, You’ll Need A Proper MDM Set-Up
Good MDM is more than just stopping bad things from happening. A good all-around MDM strategy means:
MDM Benefits
- Onboarding and offboarding employees is faster, error-free, and more efficient.
- Administrators can monitor and track devices remotely if they (the devices) are ever lost or stolen.
- Devices can be remotely locked down and wiped clean of all data to prevent unauthorized access.
- You control which apps are installed and how those apps can access company information.
- Inventory tracking is centralized; your ops team will know exactly who’s using what, where, and when, and your finance people can forecast new devices more easily.
- You can enforce data access controls.
- Troubleshooting – such as sending reset commands and providing user support – can be done remotely more effectively.
- It helps keep you legal, compliant, and free of those pesky fines.
Thinking About MDM? Start Here
Look, here’s the thing: we live and breathe MDM. We’ll help you set up the best small business device management strategy and put it into action. Give us a call because we’ve been waiting all day.
Ignition is Silicon Valley’s best (and friendliest) IT security, compliance, and support team. Contact us now – chatting about IT support and cybersecurity is our favorite thing to do!