For its recent study, “Unified Endpoint Management: Simplifying the Security and Support of PC and Mobile Devices,” Enterprise Management Associates® (EMA™) surveyed more than 100 IT directors. The results of that survey indicate multiple points of confluence between user desires and enterprise requirements that can be addressed by modern UEM. 

Users Want Freedom of Choice 

EMA survey respondents indicate that enterprise IT users have two insistent, recurring desires. They want to work wherever they are, and they want to use whatever devices they choose. EMA found that “the average business professional regularly employs at least two computing devices—including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones—to perform job tasks. Moreover, roughly half of all workers utilize both a PC and a mobile device in the course of a typical day at the office.” And of course, users want equally fluid access to their authorized resources, wherever they are and whatever device they’re using. In other words, users want contextual workspaces. 

These desires are reflected in the diversity of platforms enterprise IT teams support. “A typical IT support organization must today support a minimum of four different operating environments, each with unique configurations, applications, services, and security protocols.” (See Figure 1.) 

Enterprises Want Agility, Productivity – and Security 

EMA research indicates that IT leaders and teams are challenged to balance user desires with enterprise requirements. This is reflected by the top challenges to “supporting end-user productivity” identified by EMA survey respondents. 

Nearly half (48 percent) cited “Ensuring data security” as their top challenge to supporting end-user productivity. “In addition to being the most challenging to support, security was identified as the most time-consuming, the most difficult, and the most costly administration practice.” Other top challenges include “Delivering common apps to a broad range of device types (25 percent), “Creating a consistent user experience across multiple device types (21 percent), and “Remotely accessing/supporting user devices” (20 percent). (See Figure 2.) 

EMA survey respondents also cited “Reducing the cost of IT management” (31 percent) and “Rapidly patching of supported endpoints” (21 percent) as significant challenges. These and other challenges are exacerbated by over-reliance on manual processes. “Among the many management practices [of respondents], security accounts for the most administration time, with one-third of survey respondents indicating security tasks take a significant amount or the majority of administrator time to complete.” “Troubleshooting user application and desktop problems were also noted as being very time-consuming. This is particularly true for organizations that rely on manual process to resolve user challenges.” To address these and other challenges effectively, IT leaders and teams need to be able to create and manage workspaces that are secure, automated, and digital, or “SAD.” 

UEM: Flexibility and Security 

How best to respond to user desires while meeting enterprise security and business requirements? EMA believes modern UEM is a solid, effective answer. “Overcoming the challenges of enabling security and user productivity in an age of workforce mobility and multi-device support requires a fundamental shift from traditional endpoint management processes.” “The key to simplifying the management and security of heterogeneous user devices is the adoption of a unified endpoint management platform.”

“Organizations should look for platforms that provide fully-integrated support for all endpoint devices in their support stack, rather than a collection of point solutions that are simply accessed from a common console.” In addition, “Functional integrations must include consolidated data collections on endpoint configurations, software, and performance status, which can enable holistic reporting and alarming for prompt identification of issues and root cause analysis.” 

Modern UEM can also help to make users more productive and secure simultaneously, by making it possible to “ensure a single set of profiles can be maintained for all supported users and devices.” When business application, data, and services are accessible in a predictable way, with the same restrictions and access requirements for all devices, users are liberated to employ any device they find most appropriate to their current location and the tasks they need to perform. In this way, IT services are directly aligned with business requirements to deliver a more efficient and cost-effective approach to client lifecycle management that addresses the demanding service delivery challenges of a mobile workforce.” 

Modernize Your Endpoint Management with Ivanti 

Ivanti solutions can help you to discover and inventory your endpoints, manage administrative privileges, automate and secure application deployments, and even reduce user logon times. Wherever your starting point, Ivanti can ease and speed your journey to modern, comprehensive UEM. Ivanti can also enable defense in depth against ransomware and other threats, and modernize your IT asset and service management. 

Download the complete EMA report to learn more about how modern UEM can help you satisfy user desires and enterprise requirements more consistently. Then contact Ivanti, and learn more about how we can help you and your team to make your users happier and more productive while making your enterprise more agile and secure. 

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