MCPc Blog

Building Blocks for Mobile Device Management (MDM): Mobile Use Policy

Your organization is going mobile (or likely, it already has). To ensure that you have the right mobile device management (MDM) processes in place, the first step is to review—or develop—your organization’s mobile use policy.

Corporate Mobile Use Policy Considerations

Start with the basics, and think about where your organization and employees are headed.

State and Local Jurisdiction

Do your state or local jurisdictions uphold texting restrictions, or other laws against mobile device usage while driving? If so, your organization may be held liable if an employee on a company device causes an accident or receives a ticket for a traffic infringement.

Know your local laws, incorporate them into your mobile use policy, and go the extra step to educate employees about rules and ramifications.

Industry Regulations

The same industry regulations that apply to current IT processes and data also apply to mobile. Develop mobile-specific policies to keep devices (and the data stored/accessed on them) in line with relevant regulations, such as:

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Consistency Across Corporate Devices

Are mobile policies similar or in conflict with how users leverage other devices in the ecosystem? Often there are more regulations on mobile devices than laptops, and introducing mobile policies can be a good time to introduce other changes in the system's environment, making all device policies tougher. In the end, consistency is the best practice.

When possible, keep applications consistent, even across devices. Some MDM software allows organizations to publish a custom enterprise App Stores with recommended software, giving employees easy access to preferred tools.

BYOD

More employees are bringing their own devices into the workplace, and expecting seamless usage. Be sure to consider the following BYOD-related questions within your mobile use policy:

• Who owns the phone number that goes along with an employee-owned device? Some software allows organizations to place virtual phone numbers on mobile devices, enabling separate environments to avoid such issues.
• What is your organization is willing to pay? Consider the device, data plan, voice plan, software upgrades, device replacements, help desk and more.
• As these devices become mission-critical? Does your organization have a back-up plan in place to restore lost, broken or stolen devices?
• What standards are in place for employee-owned devices, software and applications accessing the corporate network?

Set Standards, But Be Ready to Adapt

Identify smartphone, tablet and laptop standards across your organization, including apps and operating systems.

Continual technology and device updates make it more important than ever to continually revisit your mobile use policy. The space changes quickly—it's not like Windows where you can set policies then forget them.

OS Updates

Your IT department needs to understand not only the capabilities and limitations of each OS, but also differences introduced in new versions. Updates for Android and iOS seem to be introduced every six months or so, and with them, so must your use policy be revised.

For example, when Apple introduced iOS5, it introduced the capability to backup to iCloud. Did your team react with an updated mobile use policy to keep corporate data secure?

Enlist a committee dedicated to keeping pace with the quickly changing mobile environment, and any changes that will impact your organization’s mobile use policy. Group IT managers with leaders from HR, legal and the executive team for a holistic perspective.

Help Desk Support

With your mobile use policy, clearly define what your help desk is willing to support and trained to support, including devices, connectivity, applications and more. You don't want to run a free-for-all support model with 250 different applications for your team to support and maintain.

Your Thoughts?

What challenges have you run into when updating your organization’s mobile use policy? What changes have you made recently, and how have employees responded?

Ira Grossman, VP, Personal Systems Group, has more than 15 years of technology project management experience and is an expert in lifecycle management and mobile device management for the enterprise. Connect with Ira on LinkedIn.

 

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image credit: mauritsonline