forrester - 10 lessons learned from early adopters of mobile device management solutions 2011

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For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

ExECUtIvE SUMMARyTablets and employee-owned devices are crippling infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals’ existing mobile strategies, tools, and people resources. I&O managers must now ensure the integrity of corporate data and applications across a broad spectrum of mobile devices, form factors, and platforms. This burden is driving progressive firms to commence their internal overhaul with an investment in mobile device management (MDM) solutions. As an immediate next step, firms often rethink their mobile policies to extend support to both corporate and employee-owned devices, inclusive of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Forrester recently conducted in-depth interviews with four innovative I&O executives who have embraced these new realities head on. This report shares 10 of their top lessons that readers are encouraged to apply to their own next-generation mobile strategies.

New mobility requiremeNts Drive i&o to tHiNk DiffereNtly AND Not be evil

In the past six months, nearly 600 clients have reached out to Forrester regarding their next-generation mobile strategies. At the top of the list were questions concerning use cases and which devices and platforms to support, how to properly manage and effectively secure data, and when and how to support employee-owned devices. To more effectively address these questions and concerns, Forrester recently conducted in-depth interviews with four I&O executives within progressive firms that have already taken the first step in embracing MDM solutions. We share 10 of the most interesting lessons learned that we encourage readers apply to their own strategies:

· Employees qualify for varying degrees of mobile support, often based on job function. The years of limiting device choice to a single platform are over. Employee segments have drastically different technology requirements today. Users need to be provisioned with different application workloads, must have access to corporate resources while mobile and from remote locations, and prefer to select from multiple device types. As employees take advantage of consumer tools that meet their needs and applications become nearly ubiquitous, I&O professionals are hard-pressed to deliver the tools that employees need when they need them. I&O managers need to maintain varying levels of service and support and map them to their segmented workforce. Segments that require tablets will need access to different applications than those with PCs, while users with corporate-owned devices will need much greater levels of support than those employees who bring in their own devices.

September 16, 2011 | Updated: September 19, 2011

10 Lessons Learned From Early Adopters Of Mobile Device Management SolutionsSupport For tablets And Employee-Owned Devices Drives It to Invest In Mobile Device Management Solutionsby benjamin Gray and Christian kanewith Robert Whiteley and Alex Crumb

© 2011, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction ProhibitedSeptember 16, 2011 | Updated: September 19, 2011

210 Lessons Learned From Early Adopters Of Mobile Device Management Solutions For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

· You can’t have it all; IT needs to engage with the business to better understand priorities. Progressive firms are surveying their employees to learn more about their technology needs and preferences and using this information to create workforce segments based on job function, technology used, and work requirements. These segments allow I&O professionals to more efficiently prioritize hardware and software deployments (e.g., where should we pilot tablets and which mobile applications are employees asking us to build or buy?).1

· You should create a single mobile policy for both corporate and employee-owned devices. Once firms understand their users’ requirements, they need to address how they can deliver on those. That means having a mobile policy in place that accounts for the changing device landscape in their organizations. Progressive firms are taking a two-step approach to defining their new mobile policies.2 First, they define the different levels of security and support they provide so that IT is responsible only for the services it delivers to each user. Second, they create official mobile policy documents to set expectations upfront and show clear usage guidelines that explain which employees are eligible for which devices (e.g., tablets, monthly stipends, certain applications, etc.). Firms often start with standard and premier tiers for their mobile policies, but I&O professionals should consider expanding these tiers based on location, who owns the device, and application requirements.

· You should prioritize support for iOS and Android and work around their limitations. Employees are increasingly unsatisfied with the limited number of mobile choices that IT offers and are finding ways to circumvent current IT policies to use devices that they choose. This forces I&O professionals to find ways to support Android and iOS — both of which are dominating employee preference. In fact, in the next 12 months, 83% of firms expect to support iOS and 77% expect to support Android, despite underlying security concerns for these platforms.3 To make matters worse, these platforms have limited management functionality today. Although MDM solutions are developing rapidly, many IT managers still have concerns about the lack of full-disk encryption and more advanced application control.

· MDM solutions don’t deliver a single pane of glass across all devices, but they may eventually. Firms are turning to MDM tools to get a handle on the new device types connecting to their networks.4 With Android and iOS powering the majority of these devices, most MDM vendors are focusing on support for those platforms only with plans to add support for other platforms — most likely Windows Phone 7 first — as their adoption numbers rise. Security is still a concern for Android and iOS though, however, so firms often deliver only basic services (e.g., email, contacts, and calendar) and security (e.g., PIN requirements, remote wipe, and lock) to these devices at first, with plans to allow more functionality as operating systems (OSes) and MDM solutions both mature. Despite this, these firms are not locking units down as they traditionally have with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. As one I&O manager put it:

“The goal is to get folks to use as much of the native functionality as possible.”



· You should push your suppliers to deliver an enterprise-grade application store. One unifying trend across all of the companies Forrester spoke with was the desire to deliver more applications to both smartphones and tablets. Unfortunately, firms have much loftier application management requirements than the limited capabilities that Android and iOS offer today. Many firms have identified the need for an enterprise application store to handle a variety of applications — including native, web, cloud, and Windows applications — combined with the challenge of managing device-related software like iTunes and a lack of a unified portal to deliver their business applications. However, few MDM vendors supply such an app store.5 This is preventing many firms from delivering more robust mobile applications and forcing them to use additional tools to manage more than just contacts, calendar, and email. Work with your MDM provider to test beta versions of the enterprise application stores as they become available. Your goal should be to build a store that hosts applications (e.g., physical, virtual, and web-based) and data (e.g., user documents) that employees can access across a broad spectrum of mobile devices and platforms.

· You should embrace app virtualization to scale Windows apps to non-Windows devices. Many early adopters we spoke with during inquiries and interviews cited that the first few months using their MDM solutions were actually spent crafting and improving mobile policy to tackle device choice and OS fragmentation challenges. Once those policies were in place, priorities shifted toward more detailed access management and application delivery. While firms wait for more mature enterprise application stores, they are turning to a number of point solutions for mobile application management, such as Apperian, AppCentral, and Partnerpedia, or virtualization tools, such as Citrix Receiver, to deliver critical Windows applications to mobile devices. Consider virtualization tools in particular if you don’t have the budget or in-house expertise to deliver large numbers of new mobile applications.

· You should support employee-owned devices but limit availability and help desk requests. Having an MDM solution in place gives firms the ability to manage the consumer platforms that their employees already own and are already using for work. In fact, 59% of firms today support employee-owned devices in some fashion (see Figure 1). But doing so brings up concerns for I&O professionals, such as which devices to support, how much access these devices get, and who pays for them. Ultimately, I&O professionals will need to address these concerns in the company’s mobile policy. Firms are beginning to support employee-owned devices, but only some of the I&O execs Forrester interviewed allow employee-owned devices on company networks today. Interestingly, even the staunchest of opponents recognized the need to support these devices moving forward. One I&O exec summed it up best: “Up until December management said they would never allow employee-owned devices. Now they allow some, but they require manager approval and we [reserve the right to] wipe the devices if necessary.”

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.60273

Source: Forrsights Networks and Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011

Base: 1,051 North American and European mobile technologies and services decision-makers(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)

All respondents (N = 1,009)North America (N = 627)Europe (N = 382)

“What is your firm’s official IT policy for supporting personally owned mobile phones and smartphones(does not include laptops)?”

16%

14%

18%

11%

26%

10%

4%

16%

16%

20%

12%

25%

7%

4%

14%

12%

14%

10%

28%

15%

4%

IT supports all personal devices

IT supports certain types/models ofpersonal devices

IT provides limited support to allpersonal devices

IT provides limited support to certaintypes of personal devices

IT does not provide any support forpersonal devices

Our firm’s mobile policy prohibits use ofpersonal devices

We don’t have an official policy



figure 1 More than Half Of Firms Support Employee-Owned Smartphones In Some Fashion

· You should inform the workforce about which services IT will support moving forward. The I&O execs whose firms support employee-owned devices were quick to clarify that not all devices were supported by IT. Only employees whose manager had given approval and whose devices met minimum OS requirements were given access. These employees were required to sign the firm’s mobile policy, which clearly stated that access was a privilege and that IT reserved the right to wipe the corporate data on the device if necessary. Many I&O managers expected user pushback on these points, but they found the majority of employees understood

the need for security and were fine with having their devices managed as long as the tool didn’t impact user experience. As new users get access, clearly state that every device that is allowed to connect won’t necessarily get access to all services IT provides.

· You should consider providing incentives for productivity through reimbursement stipends. Many firms Forrester spoke with during inquiries and interviews reported that allowing certain employees to use their own device can reduce mobile support costs. How? Because now employees must contact their service providers for help when a device breaks or users have an issue with their device unrelated to the services IT provides. This reduces the amount of time I&O professionals have to spend supporting these devices. Still, employees who require a mobile device for work will need reimbursement. Tier your support for these users and provide a monthly stipend based on the employee’s usage requirements. You won’t eliminate corporate-owned devices altogether, but rather introduce a model that addresses your employees’ very different requirements.

W H A t I t M E A n S

CoNsumerizAtioN will iNjeCt muCH-NeeDeD iNNovAtioN iNto mobile strAteGies

I&O executives often overestimate what they can accomplish in just three to six months, but also dramatically underestimate what’s possible over two to three years. the mobility challenges facing I&O managers today are largely due to the great divide between the pace of consumer innovation and the nascent enterprise-class maturity of the platforms and management solutions. But while It takes months to build a strategy, weeks to get budget approval, and years to revise their strategy, the workforce is going ahead with or without It’s guidance and sign-off. this is driving much-needed innovation and flexibility into workforce productivity, but at the same time it’s challenging I&O executives’ leadership in the decision-making process. Because waiting for the technology to mature is simply not an option, we encourage I&O executives to start with an investment in MDM solutions today and then build out a single mobile policy that encompasses both corporate and employee-owned devices.

eNDNotes1 When it comes to deciding what employees need from technology, IT has gamely applied well-regarded

and typically valuable techniques: interview stakeholders, collect requirements, build a project plan, review it with the “customer.” These techniques can work well for infrastructure projects and sometimes for applications driven by a top-down business need. But when it comes to discretionary technologies that employees use every day — computers, phones, productivity applications, collaboration tools, employee portals, knowledge management apps — these techniques sometimes fail to capture the needs of a diverse workforce. See the September 27, 2010, “A Fact-Based Approach To Workforce Technology Needs Assessment” report.



http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=57121&src=60273pdf


2 Forrester has identified 15 best practices that I&O managers should use when crafting their new mobile policies. These practices keep corporate data secure, employees productive and happy, and costs down, while selectively embracing the consumerization of IT where appropriate. See the January 11, 2011, “Fifteen Mobile Policy Best Practices” report.

3 Source: Forrsights Networks and Telecommunications Survey, Q1 2011.

4 IT managers are shifting away from a one-size-fits-all, corporate-liable smartphone model to one that: 1) includes support for at least BlackBerry, iOS, and Android, and 2) is much more open to individually liable devices connecting to corporate resources. This architectural shift will force IT and telecom managers to re-evaluate their smartphone management solutions and services. See the August 26, 2010, “Market Overview: Smartphone Management” report.

5 The managed mobile environment services market is about to go through a fundamental change. Currently, traditional providers focus on managing the device and its security. Moving forward, Forrester believes that the market will dramatically change course and that the emphasis will shift to building mobile app stores and managing the growing pool of apps and data on a burgeoning array of smartphones and tablets. See the August 8, 2011, “Mobile Management Takes A 180-Degree Turn” report.


Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology. Forrester works with professionals in 19 key roles at major companies providing proprietary research, customer insight, consulting, events, and peer-to-peer executive programs. For more than 28 years, Forrester has been making IT, marketing, and technology industry leaders successful every day. For more information, visit www.forrester.com.

© 2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reproduction or sharing of this content in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. To purchase reprints of this document, please email [email protected]. For additional reproduction and usage information, see Forrester’s Citation Policy located at www.forrester.com. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. 60273






forrester - 10 lessons learned from early adopters of mobile device management solutions 2011

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