With third quarter 2016 well under way, many organizations are starting to prepare annual budgets for the coming calendar year. IT departments in particular are often faced with a large number of competing priorities that must be addressed and accounted for in this process. But with the continued rapid evolution of technology and mobile trends, prioritizing IT spending can be a serious challenge.

This spring, Information Week shared an article titled “8 IT Projects to Prioritize When Spending Is Tight.” Author Andrew Froehlich highlights his list of must-dos, which consists of cloud migration, forklift replacement of legacy apps, WiFi upgrades, WAN optimization, collaboration, network performance monitoring (NPM), web and email security, and automation. Many of these are near and dear to our hearts here at Tech Orchard. However, we want to specifically highlight why enterprise mobility management (EMM) and mobile threat prevention (MTP) should be at the top of your list as you plan for 2017.

Making the case for EMM and MTP

There’s no denying the proliferation of mobile devices in the enterprise today. Yet all too often, companies are allowing employees to go rogue when it comes to accessing apps, email, content and more, all with little or no oversight. This puts the organization in a precarious position, as a lost or stolen device then opens the company up to extensive liability risks. Even well-intentioned executives with fully approved data access could make a minor mistake that generates major consequences.

At the same time, the need for these tablets, smartphones and wearables to improve productivity, collaboration and efficiency is clear. The world is moving at light speed, and ignoring the advantages of mobility simply isn’t an option for businesses who want to compete and thrive in the marketplace. Therefore, companies must find cost-effective, manageable solutions for finding that compromise between oversight and accessibility.

The right EMM solution:

  • Enables organizations to standardize enterprise security and data loss prevention strategies across mobile devices through a flexible approach
  • Provides a simplified, efficient way to view and manage all devices from the central admin console in the cloud
  • Addresses the challenge of acquiring, distributing, securing and tracking mobile applications
  • Protects sensitive content in a corporate container and provides users with a central application to securely accessit as needed
  • Controls which mobile devices access email, encrypts sensitive data, enforces advanced compliance policies and allows users to easily sync email through a self-service portal

In other words, the right EMM solution supports many of the other priorities Mr. Froehlich identified in his article! When combined with MTP, your organization can deploy and defend mobile devices with confidence and stay one step ahead of advanced mobile security threats.

As you think about prioritizing your IT spending for the year ahead, contact us to determine how EMM and MTP can pay for themselves time and again, making this decision an easy one.