The New Normal
With nearly 42% of the U.S. labor force working from home full-time, the pandemic has normalized remote work.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by the business communication platform, Slack, the majority of knowledge workers never want to go back to the old way of working. Only 12% want to return to full-time office work, and 72% want a hybrid remote-office model moving forward. Additionally, a new report published by, LiveCareer, an online resume and job search consulting service, reveals that nearly 30% of working professionals would quit their jobs if they couldn’t continue working remotely.
Remote work looks like it’s here to stay. As they say, it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle. And within this “new normal” organizations are experiencing a whole host of new challenges. Our CEO, Jane Sydolwski, touched on how organizations might confront some of the employee engagement, innovation and leadership challenges of this era in her recent LinkedIn post.
Another area of the enterprise that’s feeling the strain of the “new normal” is mobility and IoT management. Corporate mobility departments and managers are finding that one of the biggest challenges of a remote workforce is maintaining data and device security. Here’s why:
- Employees are increasingly relying on their smartphones rather than a traditional computer. In fact, 4 in 10 say that their smart phone will replace their computer within the next 5 years. Why is this a security risk? Where a traditional computer would be outfitted with proper security to protect the machine and the company’s data from bad actors, a smartphone is far less likely to have the same levels of protection – opening it up to security vulnerabilities.
- Additionally, employees are using their personal smartphones – what the industry calls “bring your own device” or BYOD – to conduct business. Again, these devices are not set up in such a way that support today’s cyber security best practices. For example:
- Passwords may not be as secure as necessary
- These devices might be more prone to hacks or malware where a cyber attack could then enter into a business system through the back door of an employee’s device
- The security of a smart phone may not meet compliance standards and requirements
- The employee may be accessing sensitive company information on unsecure networks
And so on…
For these reasons and more, 31% of C-suite executives have enacted policies that require employees to keep work data on work computers only. But in today’s environment, that’s not a tenable solution for the long term. What will work for organizations in the near AND long term is a corporate mobility and IoT policy that’s supported by mobile device management technology (MDM).
AMI Strategies consults with companies to help them fully assess the mobility and IoT needs of their organization – including where there may be gaps in device security and how to close these gaps. From there, we can put in place a custom MDM solution through our mobilityNOW MDM that targeted to the specific mobility challenges an organization may be facing. For example, MDM technology can help organizations with:
- Content Management
- Containerization
- OS Updates
- Remote Control
- Location History
- Geofencing
- Device Onboarding
- Profile Management
- And so much more
Meet the “new normal” with tools in place that ease the data and device concerns of your enterprise. Contact us today to learn more about AMI’s approach and how our MDM solutions can provide greater peace of mind around mobility and IoT security within a remote workforce.
