Demystifying Mobile Device Management – Part 2: What MDM is NOT

So now that we have defined what Mobile Device Management (MDM) IS, let’s define what it IS NOT.

MDM is…..

1. NOT a Managed Solution (you and your enterprise need to work make MDM work)
2. NOT Wireless Expense Management (it is a cost add)
3. NOT an equal opportunity device provider (some OS do not support MDM well)
4. NOT necessarily a good replacement for what you may already have
5. NOT completely able to remotely control nor troubleshoot devices
6. NOT a complete nor standardized solution with respect to the exhaustive solution required by a successful mobile enterprise today

While all are key factors, I will discuss the first two in detail as they are the most important key factors in my mind and they are the most often misunderstood.

First, MDM is NOT a Managed Solution

The Enterprise needs a Mobility Policy, that is an Operational statement of what can be done with a mobile device, who should be able to conduct certain procedures and how these procedures will occur. All users need to be set up and rules for which applications will be allowed need to be determined. For example if you don’t want users to have Facebook on their corporate device, this needs to be delineated and then managed as part of MDM user protocols.

The following are just a few of the things needing to be considered for MDM management profiles and user policies:

• Lock down strategy by user
• Content restrictions
• Device setting configurations
• Messaging rules and restrictions
• App rules
• Restrictions and security settings (access enabled, etc.).

None of this is just done by MDM, MDM simply implements what you tell it to do after you set up the process for it to do it.

Second, MDM is NOT Wireless Expense Management (WEM)

Fie on those MDM providers touting they are a WEM solution. Let’s review: MDM costs you money to implement, WEM saves you money to implement.

Although these two solutions can be combined to help enterprises in the long run avoid costs, MDM on its own does NOT help reduce your wireless expense. WEM, on the other hand, as a fully managed solution reduces your bills without the enterprise having to do anything except approve changes.

Let’s take one example of what happens with MDM when changes need to happen:

Now lets take a look at the same example when done with a WEM provider:

You can get all the alerts necessary to make the enterprise AWARE of potential issues, but if no one in the organization actually makes the change, the result is not a good one (also, again, back to point 1, MDM is NOT a MANAGED SOLUTION).

On the other hand, WEM is a managed solution and inherently takes the additional steps required in order to save money. MDM providers can tout money savings all they want, but unless someone is managing the plans, the enterprise will end up paying more.

Craig Mathias writes several great points on MDM and expense management in his November 2011 Information week article. He says:

“…tracking of how money is being spent on network access is vital. It’s important that this be as close to real-time as possible in order to spot negative trends before they become a big hit to the bottom line. And policy enforcement via software would also be nice–there’s no point in racking up cellular minutes when, for example, a lower-cost Wi-Fi option is available.”

I’ve proposed the term Mobile Operations Management (MOM) as the all-inclusive catch-phrase for describing all of the elements required for a successful enterprise mobility implementation–successful being defined as secure, cost-effective, appropriate, visible, enabling, and manageable. But no matter what we call all of this, enterprises everywhere need to think about strategy, and not just assume that an MDM solution (again, whatever that is) is all that’s required”.

Gartner when referring to what MDM is NOT says, “While IT organizations vary in their approaches to implementing and owning the tools that manage mobile devices (e.g., the messaging group, some other mobile group, the desktop group, etc.), there are still very few that are managing the full life cycle across multiple device platforms.

This idea of wireless management is key. MDM is piece of the pie, and it could be a very helpful piece, but it is only a piece; don’t be misled by trying to keep up with the joneses on the latest and greatest. It is likely not the right plan, right price nor right result.