How IT Teams Are Navigating Device Diversity
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Today's distributed workforce relies on device diversity. Learn how IT teams are supporting a wide range of both BYOD and in-office devices.
In 2022, businesses of all sizes have to manage a diverse device infrastructure to meet the needs of their employees, customers and partners.
Despite being much smaller than laptops and tablets, mobile devices have caught up in terms of their ability to run apps, leverage cloud-based services and interact with back-end systems. The use of mobile devices makes it possible for users to work wherever and whenever they need to, while still providing them access to corporate resources.
Mobile devices also enhance workflow by extending business processes and making them more efficient. A recent Oxford Economics survey found that 80% of IT and business leaders believe employees need a smartphone to work effectively. In the same survey, 75% said that mobile devices are essential to their company's business workflows. It’s easy to see why through just a couple of examples.
Account Managers now routinely use mobile apps to:
Place orders
Update customer information
Retrieve pricing and discount rates
Share product information and updates with customers
Human Resources keeps employees engaged and on track. Employees commonly use HR apps to:
Log time
Submit timesheets and expense reports
Sign up for and receive training
Stay updated on company alerts and other news
Even enterprise apps as complex as ERP now cater to mobile device users. According to ITProPortal’s article on ERP in 2022, “With mobile ERP, users have the convenience of accessing their ERP via their mobile device, with the same functionality as from their desktop.”
A BYOD Workforce
Employees, especially the ones working in a BYOD (bring your own device) environment, want to choose devices that they trust and find easy to use. They see it as critical to productivity and job satisfaction, since using any device they choose gives them flexibility and autonomy. A global survey of over ten thousands workers by Gartner found that 55% of those surveyed are using personally owned smartphone or laptop devices for their work at least some of the time. That includes Macs, Windows and Linux desktops and laptops; Android and Apple smartphones; tablets and phablets – and more to come.
How Is IT Supporting Device Diversity?
When an employee has a problem with their personal device or an application running on it, they need the same level of support that the IT / help desk provides for company-managed devices. This places a new support burden on IT. Most IT teams have a remote support tool that enables access to managed computers, but that fails to address all the remote BYOD instances in use today.
To successfully support remote workers’ BYOD needs, progressive IT departments have shifted to real-time capabilities for supporting any device (managed and unmanaged) in the event of a technical difficulty. The fastest way they achieve this capability is by implementing an attended support solution.
What Is Attended Support?
Attended support is an advanced form of on-demand support. It allows IT to remotely access any computer, tablet, or mobile device while the user is present without any prior installation. This means technicians can support any end user on their work or personal device (including Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices), the moment they need help. With attended support, technicians simply take control of the end-user’s device to troubleshoot – just like they would in person.
Combining MDM with Attended Support
Even before the pandemic, IT departments witnessed the spike in employees’ mobile device usage and responded by implementing MDM (mobile device management) solutions. According to Wireless Watchdogs, MDM solutions can control remote access to highly sensitive data, provide user authentication and even offer remote data wiping of devices if they become lost or stolen. In addition, MDM can be used to make sure devices are up-to-date on software patches that could fix known security vulnerabilities.
To use an MDM solution, IT deploys an agent onto every single company-managed device within the enterprise network. Those agents report data from each device, and established protocols compel specific actions whenever a device shows signs of being a potential security threat.
However, MDM alone cannot support all the BYOD devices in use today. Especially when you consider that estimates give a range of 1.7 to 2.3 devices in use by each remote employee who uses his/her own device for work. As a result, many companies are adding attended support to their existing MDM solution via a simple integration. Splashtop attended support provides easy integration into multiple MDM and security solutions.
Attended Support Boosts The ROI of MDM
Samsung estimates that on-premises MDM costs a company $12,000 per year, on average, to support 100 users. Even if an organization uses cloud-based MDM, they will still pay upwards of $10,000 for 100 users ($5,000 for basic MDM). So, it makes great ROI sense to add attended support at a fraction of that cost. With Splashtop SOS you can support unlimited users at a mere $199 per technician license.
Splashtop SOS also enables attended technician management, multiple concurrent sessions, custom branding and integrations to ticketing/ITSM. IT leaders have already invested so much budget to enable remote work. The ability to support every single device employees use (with no device volume limit) is a no-brainer.
Running Splashtop Attended Support Is Easy
Both IT departments and employees have embraced Splashtop attended support because of its simplicity. An employee simply generates a unique 9-digit session code and then sends that code to help desk staff. The technician can use the code to connect to the employee’s device, instantly taking control. Once in control, they can transfer files, print remotely, chat, share screens and more. From personal cell phones to company desktops, attended support makes it easy for IT teams to securely manage employee devices.
