Enterprise Mobility Management has emerged as the essential tool top performing organizations use to take control of the full mobility lifecycle

[marketwire] Zenprise, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise mobile management and device management software, today announced findings from a research report conducted by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, titled "Enterprise Mobility Management: Optimizing the Full Mobile Lifecycle." More than 200 companies worldwide were surveyed for the report, which found top performing organizations ("Best-in-Class") are deploying Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solutions to lower total cost of ownership (TCO), enforce compliance to company policy and governance issues and secure the mobile edge of the network.

"Enterprise Mobility Management has emerged as the essential tool top performing organizations use to take control of the full mobility lifecycle of their mobile ecosystem," said Andrew Borg, senior research analyst for wireless and mobility, Aberdeen.

Aberdeen distinguished the respondents as Best-in-Class, Industry Average and Laggard organizations. Analysts used three performance criteria to determine their status: TCO per mobile employee, percentage of employees provided with secure mobile access to enterprise network and data, and percentage of lost or stolen devices not successfully recovered

Findings included:

* EMM impacts the bottom line -- By leveraging EMM, TCO per mobile employee in a Best-in-Class company averaged $189, 23 percent lower than the Industry Average and significantly lower than Laggards who spend $588 per employee.
* Top performers are mobile -- Best-in-Class organizations mobilize 84 percent of their employees -- an increase of 22 percent over the last 12 months. By comparison, Industry Average organizations mobilized just 46 percent and Laggards only 33 percent of their workforce.
* EMM reduces number of lost/stolen devices -- Top performing companies saw a seven percent reduction in unrecovered lost or stolen devices, 2.7 times the Industry Average and 26 times the Laggards.
* Diversity and complexity of mobile platforms is exploding -- The number of viable mobile platforms in the workplace has more than doubled from three or four platforms a year ago to eight or nine as more employees are bringing personal devices into the workplace. The majority (74 percent) of Best-in-Class companies support more than one mobile platform and device type.
* You can't manage what you can't see -- 70 percent of Best-in-Class organizations developed a detailed inventory of all devices accessing the corporate network, and 40 percent of those extended that inventory to include employee-liable devices.
* Remote control management capabilities contribute to competitive advantage -- Of Best-in-Class companies, 70 percent centrally manage mobile devices over the air, and 65 percent can update mobile software over the air. More than half (58 percent) are able to remotely lock and wipe data from a lost or stolen mobile devices.

The Aberdeen survey also found that Best-in-Class organizations leveraged EMM capabilities to ensure that end user devices are properly authenticated before accessing company network and data. Almost three quarters of the Best-in-Class track the level of network and data access provided to each employee, which helps them to enforce security policies. Further, these companies are more likely to implement processes to control which software is installed on end-user devices to minimize security risks and ensure network performance is protected from malware and other threats.

"The recent trend of re-consolidation of mobility under IT management indicates the evolving maturity of enterprise mobility as core infrastructure, essential to remaining competitive in today's global economy," Borg continued.

"Mobile devices have become an extension of an employee's personal and business identity and as a result the enterprise mobility landscape is becoming increasingly complicated given the proliferation of platforms, operating systems, applications and media to manage and secure," said Ahmed Datoo, Vice President of Marketing, Zenprise. "This report validates how leading companies are taking control of enterprise mobility by adopting technologies that provide the same level of control and visibility over their mobile assets as they do over traditional IT resources such as desktops and laptops."


Survey Finds Enterprise Mobility Management Lowers Cost, Improves Security and Supports More Devices
see also Aberdeen report