5 factors driving UEM adoption across enterprises

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do” —wise words to live by if you want to survive in the market sector. Running an enterprise is not an easy task. Understanding the market scenario, keeping up with technology, managing your finances and employees—there are a lot of moving parts. Over the past few years, there have been significant changes in the enterprise field. The operating models of enterprises now are not the same as they were 4-5 years ago.

If you think about it, there are a few reasons for this change. The first and most fundamental cause is technical progress. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and wearable electronics are available at your fingertips right now. Then, there is the remote work culture that has taken over the world. Employees don’t have to be physically present at their offices to do their work. Companies had to restructure their work models significantly to keep their stride in the market. One of the after-effects of this change is the increase in the focus on device management. In the remote work environment, managing and controlling devices becomes crucial. The obvious and most practical solutions to this is equipping your enterprise with a UEM (Unified Endpoint Management) solution.

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We’ll let Phil ponder over this for some time while we look at some of the factors that drive enterprises to adopt UEMs.

The Rise of the Remote Work Environment

If you are someone who works with digital devices, then you are probably no stranger to tech issues. Whenever an employee is facing a tech issue, it’s always the IT admins who come flying to their desks for rescue. But the situation is not the same now, as most companies have started to adopt a remote work culture where employees can work from their own homes. Studies show that 56% of companies have transitioned fully or partially to a remote work culture in the past year. So, the IT folks can’t physically be there all the time. This is where a provision for remotely managing devices becomes relevant.

To be at multiple places at the same time, the IT admins need to have some superpower. Or, a tool such as a UEM that does the job for them! This is one of the major reasons why enterprises are adopting UEMs. It lets you have the necessary control over the devices by managing them from a centralized platform.

Tech-World

Needless to say, the tech world is making swift progress. There are many devices used within the enterprise network, each with its own purpose. Mobile phones, PCs, laptops, tablets, IoT wearables such as fitness trackers, smart clothes—you name it. If you can imagine a device, it will probably be made possible in a few years. Many enterprises use different endpoint devices to carry out their operations. With this great power of having so many options comes the greater responsibility of managing them. This is what led to the development of UEM from its predecessors—MDM and EMM. The holistic nature of a unified dashboard in UEM lets you control a variety of endpoints. Most enterprises will require multiple endpoint devices to serve their needs. Even if they don’t, being equipped with a UEM and having the option to fall back gives them flexibility in the future.

Internet of Threats

Have you heard about ARP spoofing? MITM attacks? DNS hijacking? Trust me, I didn’t make these words up. These are some of the different kinds of cyber-attacks that have cost trillions to businesses worldwide over the past few years.

If you spend more on coffee than on IT security, you will be hacked. What’s more, you deserve to be hacked.

— Richard A. Clarke

Remote work culture has increased the risk of cyber-attacks, putting corporate data under threat. Cyber crimes, which include everything from theft to data hacking and destruction, have increased by 600% in the past couple of years. But the rate of detection of these attacks is as low as 0.05%. These are indeed some scary numbers. Such security concerns have increased the demand for UEMs to secure and manage devices. UEMs help enhance the capabilities of in-built security systems like FileVault, BitLocker, and Firewall by remotely configuring them. Considering the above facts, UEMs are more like a necessity than an add-on.

The Pursuit of (employee) Happiness

Think about a life where your car turns on by itself and takes you to your destination, window blinds get adjusted automatically according to the weather, and your coffee cup gets automatically refilled—seems pretty convenient, doesn’t it? Having such routine tasks done by themselves can make your day a lot better. This is what a UEM does to your devices. I’m not saying that a UEM will take care of everything. There is no rose without a thorn. Yet, a UEM automates many cumbersome tasks that take up the valuable time of employees and IT admins.

A UEM can automate processes like configuring app settings, managing privacy preferences, installing applications, downloading updates, and so on. All these features are aimed at improving the user experience, which in this case is the employees. Happier employees are more productive, which benefits the company in so many ways.

BYOD

There has been a significant increase in the usage of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in the past few years. Sure, it helps to cut down on one of the biggest overhead costs of purchasing endpoint devices. Companies don’t have to worry about the purchase, safekeeping, and deployment of devices. But it does much more than that. Having your own device to work is like having a match at your home ground—it has its advantages. You’ll be familiar with the location. You’ll have much more flexibility since you know the features of the place, and there is always the satisfaction that it’s your own place.

Similarly, in a BYOD environment, you don’t have to get accustomed to a new device or OS, and it gives you the flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime. But implementing BYOD is not that easy as enterprises have to take extra care in containerizing data to ensure corporate data doesn’t get mixed with personal data. This is the piece of the puzzle that a UEM completes. UEM provides data security while providing access to corporate data on personal devices. UEM and BYOD are things that should go hand in hand.

The Return of Phil

Let’s come back to Phil’s story. Now that we understand why organizations are rushing to adopt UEMs, the best advice we can give is “Yes Phil, go get yourself a UEM”. Flexibility is important, and you should have your enterprise ready to adapt to on-premise and remote management models. Equipping your enterprise with a UEM is the first step in making this happen. Also, there are always the added advantages of having a better security system and being able to automate so many tedious tasks. So, all in all, an easy choice for Phil.

Back to the future

The above-mentioned reasons explain why more and more enterprises are adopting UEMs. The global market for UEMs was valued at 3.39 billion USD in 2020 and is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.7% from 2021 to 2030. If these statistics tell us anything, it is the growing importance of having your enterprise equipped with a UEM.

UEM- but which one?

Having a UEM is important. But there are so many capable UEMs available on the market. So, how do you choose the right one? The first step is to list the requirements of your enterprise. The next step is figuring out which UEM has the capabilities that you require. It is as simple as that. Adopting one of the leading UEMs like Hexnode, which has a wide range of capabilities, can put you on the safe side. Apart from the essential features, Hexnode contains a variety of novel features such as kiosk lockdown, content management, and location-based services, making it worth your money.