To begin, I am not a fan of the name “Enterprise Mobility Suite”. It seems to infer that it is both not required by SMBs (not true) and that it is only for enterprise size companies (also not true). According to Forrester Research, 29 percent of the global workforce or approximately 1 billion people are now “anytime, anywhere information workers” who use three or more devices. Specific to the US, IDC notes that in 2015 there were 96.2 million mobile workers. At 65% of employed workers this is a new high for employees requiring mobile features and support. However, IDC believes it will exceed 70% by 2020.

Every business segment, SMBs with employees from 2-999 and Enterprises with 1000+ share concerns regarding mobile workers and mobile users need to access networks and cloud applications using multiple devices that are either supplied by the business of personal. These devices include laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets and phablets. They should be able to receive and respond to information in real time through email, messaging, voice and video. Finally, they must be able to collaborate rapidly and effectively within their work groups, across work groups, with partners and with customers. 

However, in addressing the needs of mobile workers, businesses expose themselves to many potentially adverse situations. To avoid harm to the business, IT must improve how it verifies users, authorizes access to systems and data, manages devices, enforces device governance rules and protects information. The Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) is a single tool that allows you to address all of these things. Understanding the risk and having a tool to address them is important to every business owner, decision maker or IT manager.

Microsoft makes it easy to understand the capabilities of EMS through this video. However, I also know that 40 minutes is a lot of time to watch a video and, at the end of the day, have no notes or reference document. Hence, this blog. I really enjoyed learning the use cases for EMS and recognizing how CloudRoute was now a member of a very select group of businesses protected by EMS.  

Over the next few blogs we will cover these three EMS areas:

• Identity Management and Access 
• Mobile Device and Application Management
• Information Protection

EMS is the most comprehensive solution to managing mobile workers. It is integrated with Windows 10 and Office 365 to ensure ease of use and to leverage the familiarity of Microsoft applications. The deep integration solves mobility concerns and delivers the economic value of being cheaper than standalone products.

More soon…