Enterprise Briefing

 

 

 

Mobile device management (MDM) is a headache waiting to happen for many IT and telecom managers. More devices are entering the corporate environment with different operating systems (OS), faster processing speeds, longer battery lives, and users are storing more mission-critical data on them. They are easier to carry around than laptops and are being used more frequently by mobile workers to access business applications outside of email. The link between ‘mobility’ and ‘productivity’ is growing stronger.

 

Few enterprise customers will disagree that MDM is essential to help them manage this proliferation of mobile technology. This question was explored in June 2008 at a Mobile Device Management workshop at the Berlin conference of the global ICT user group EVUA. Perhaps surprisingly only 12% of the members at the workshop actually had an MDM solution in place today with a further 25% planning to implement it in the future. This left 63% of enterprises surveyed undecided.

 

Members understood the security implications of device management, such as the need to extend corporate policy to mobile devices to protect corporate data and secure the network. There was also some realization of the need to adhere to regulatory compliance, largely to protect confidentiality of customer data, in the long-term. Similar to the development of laptops, mobile devices will increase in processing power, battery life and storage capabilities.

 

With continual improvements in wireless networks (3G, 3.5G and eventually 4G), more business-critical applications will be pushed to handhelds. There is already evidence of EVUA members using their mobile devices for sales force automation, field force automation and for machine-to-machine solutions. Supply chain management, fleet reporting and other location-based services are not too far away.

 

One of the primary explanations behind the lack of MDM solutions is that many of the EVUA members' network providers, whether fixed or mobile, did not have a standard MDM solution in place. In the 2008 EVUA annual survey, 43% of members looked to their mobile operator for MDM. The lack of carrier MDM platforms comes amidst much rhetoric about what a solution should look like, what standards should be used (OMA, FOTA, etc.), and how it can be administered and managed. While most carriers do not have an MDM offer today, they all have identified MDM as a strategic area and appear to be in a vendor-review process with standard platforms available sometime in 2009.

 

Telecom and IT managers considering an MDM solution today, but who didn't want to wait for their operator to offer such a solution were presented with a number of alternatives at the EVUA workshop.

 

First, companies could deploy vertically integrated solutions where they can essentially self-manage behind the firewall platforms, using both server software and client applications from providers such as RIM, Microsoft, Nokia Intellisync and Motorola/Good Technology to support their devices. However, most of these middleware platforms will only support one or two OS and the reality is that most companies will need to manage several platforms in order to support a hybrid OS environment, and so inevitably will end up paying more.

 

The second alternative is to consider MDM specialist vendors. In Europe, the major vendors identified were Capricode, Excitor, FromDistance, MProdigy, Synchronica and 7p Group. Unlike MDM offerings from fixed and mobile operators, these companies have standard solutions today and some are even deployed as a software as a service (SaaS) delivery model. The solutions can support several operating systems, typically Symbian and Windows Mobile, and are being actively used by enterprise customers. Most of the MDM specialist service vendors tend to have a narrow country or regional focus. Few solutions support BlackBerry or are deployed globally or across regions (e.g. Europe and US). While these solutions can give immediate relief to device management challenges, the market is fragmented and ripe for consolidation.

 

The third option presented in the workshop was to outsource MDM to the traditional system integrators (SI) and a number of EVUA members have taken this path. Device management contracts tend to be on the back of an existing offer, such as desktop management. System integrators have also been acquiring device management vendors and are building some level of expertise. They also bring a strong understanding of application management and security to the table. However some of the SIs tend to target existing accounts and appear reluctant to support device management on a stand-alone basis, there are also limits in the number of OS they will support.

 

The MDM market is still at a very early stage and there is no consensus on which way the market will go. An internal EVUA annual survey shows that 43% of members will consider their mobile operator, 24% a device specialist, 14% a systems integrator and 14% will look at an in-house solution. End users are also expecting MDM to help them manage security and mobile asset provisioning and inventory. MDM has a strong link to telecom expense management solutions (TEMS), with customers looking for a combined offering. However this market is also fragmented and customers may have to source TEMS separately from MDM. There are very few offers on the market today that can combine both.