Mobility & Flexible Working - Metaphor IT Limited

MOBILITY AND FLEXIBLE WORKING

The consumerisation of IT has seen more and more people expect to use consumer technologies such as smartphones, tablets and apps at work. These are devices they are familiar with, they use them in their daily life and it helps them to be more engaged and more productive. Users want the choice to use the devices and technology that suit them best. Organisations are adopting different approaches to mobility; some are providing their employees with the devices they need, others are encouraging employees to use their own devices. The move to mobility is a journey that needs to be planned. Metaphor IT has first-hand experience in helping organisations find the right balance between flexibility and security. For ourselves and our clients we have seen how this smarter way of working makes people more productive and engaged.

Enterprise Mobility in Numbers

3 Devices

is the average number owned per Employee

65% of Employees

work in multiple locations

62% of information workers

work outside of the office at least once a month

80%+ of Fortune 500

companies currently use unmanaged cloud storage

Bring Your Own Device

Bring Your Own Device, Chose Your Own Device, Chose Your Corporate Device… These are all marketing terms that have been bouncing around the industry for the past few years. The reality is they all mean the same thing… Providing End Users with the applications and tools they require to effectively carry out their jobs across multiple devices while maintaining security.

Consumerisation is quickly transforming business and IT models, turn the clocks back 10 years and most employees would only ever interact with a computer in the workplace. Nowadays many of the workforce own multiple devices and expect the flexibility and functionality to be available in the workplace. Using consumer devices at work was once regarded with hesitation or even outright resistance by many businesses however it is now a mainstream trend in organisations of all kinds. By adopting a flexible policy that lets people use their own PCs and mobile devices for work, organisations can attract and retain talented employees while increasing productivity, protecting data and simplifying IT.

Metaphor IT work with customers looking to embrace the “modern workspace” through a simple, secure approach based on leading enterprise technologies. Our solutions allow employees to access all of their apps and data on any device while giving IT the means to maintain security with uniform policy enforcement, full compliance and efficient control.

ENTERPRISE MOBILITY MANAGEMENT

A mobility strategy is fundamental to support a happy and productive workforce. As employees increasingly expect to be able to work from anywhere, on any device, organisations must move beyond the constraints of fixed locations and standard PCs to enable new freedom and flexibility in the way people work. Enterprise mobility management solutions enable your organisation to securely provide access to the apps and data people need to do their jobs effectively no matter where they are or what devices they use.

When people think about mobility the first thing that comes to mind is Mobile Device Management (MDM). Is this really what mobility is about? In short, No – MDM is deploying policies to an end device with the intention to lock it down or restrict certain functions. Organisations have started purchasing and rolling out MDM solutions, it is only once they have been implemented that they realise the limitations around MDM and that these solutions are not providing the end users with the flexibility required. MDM is a very small part of the greater mobility puzzle.

Security is often the first reason IT teams look for a mobility solution but also a reason why many stay away from it. The key is to make the right applications and data available on mobile devices and avoid the temptation for people to seek simple/quick workarounds that put the organisation at risk. Metaphor IT works with you to meet your mobility requirements while maintaining security and compliance.

Users out on the move need to share, store and sync data. Many organisations are suffering from the “Drop Box Problem” whereby company data is being stored in consumer public cloud services. This leaves IT in a position whereby they have no control over where that data is and who is able to view it. Our solutions give IT the ability to control sensitive corporate data while meeting the mobility and collaboration needs of users, providing a secure, compliant, consumer-like experience.

Users are now accustomed to a high quality on-demand consumer experience and have come to expect similar convenience, simplicity and performance in their work life. Metaphor IT have years of experience working directly with the end user. Our user centric approach gives us the ability to really understand the end users requirements and transform that knowledge into solutions that empower them.

ENTERPRISE FILE SYNC AND SHARING

Flexible working and BYOD trends are putting more pressure on IT organisations, who are struggling to accommodate these trends and comply with corporate security requirements. A growing dispersed workforce and the need to collaborate and share data with customers, partners and other external users add to this complexity. End users have increasingly turned to unsecure, consumer-style cloud services for access to their data and files across all of their devices, and to share those files with others.

Do you know where all of your data is? We have seen it countless times, users sending files to their personal email addresses, uploading documents to consumer cloud storage services or even transferring documents to personal tablet and mobile devices. Why is this happening? Is it malicious? In most cases the answer is No. Users are trying to find smarter and more effective ways to work, emailing documents to themselves so they can continue working on them at home or uploading a document to drop box so it can be accessed on an iPad and read on the train.

To help IT regain control over employee file sharing, Metaphor IT have solutions that provide a consumer like experience for your users while ensuring your data never leaves your datacentre.

⇒ To find out more read our blog post – What is a File Sync and Share Solution.