Productivity

How Can Managed IT Services Help Improve Employee Productivity?

How Can Managed IT Services Help Improve Employee Productivity?

How Can Managed IT Services Help Improve Employee Productivity?

How Can Managed IT Services Help Improve Employee Productivity?

Technology drives a lot of business in today’s world. The fast pace means efficiency and productivity are both critical factors to success. For many organizations, maintaining an in-house IT team to handle all of the complicated and ever-changing technology can be a challenge that sucks away a lot of resources. Washington DC managed IT services can offer an effective solution, giving the business all of the benefits without having to keep a full-time team on the payroll. 

Managed IT services offer an effective solution for all of those issues, providing specialized expertise, scalability, and proactive support to your business. Beyond all of the technical benefits, these kinds of services can significantly enhance employee productivity, if done the right way. By implementing managed IT services with the right strategy, you can make your business more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.

Minimize Downtime

Any downtime can be a productivity killer for most businesses. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, downtime can cause a lot of headaches and slow things to a screeching halt. There are a number of technological issues that can push your business into downtime. From hardware failures, software glitches, cybersecurity breaches, and a number of other issues, your systems are always at risk. When those systems go down, employees are left idle while they wait for it to resolve. Managed IT services prioritize proactive maintenance to keep you from those interruptions.

Managed service providers (MSPs) continuously monitor your systems 24/7 to detect and resolve potential issues before they escalate into that annoying downtime. Regular updates, patch management, and regular hardware checks are also common with MSPs, making sure that your systems always remain operational and secure. These providers also typically have dedicated support teams. That means issues are addressed promptly, reducing the time your employees spend on IT-related problems. All of this helps your employees focus on core tasks without unnecessary disruptions from technology.

Enhanced Cybersecurity

There is no end of threats out in cyberspace, and they are constantly evolving to try and sneak past your security measures. Cybersecurity threats like data breaches, phishing, and ransomware can all bring your productivity to a grinding halt – especially if all or most of your employees are impacted. Not only can this slow down productivity, but it can also have a heavy impact on the bottom line if drastic measures are needed to clean up the breach. Managed IT services implement robust security measures to protect against these threats – safeguarding all of your employee workflows. 

MSPs can implement comprehensive security protocols throughout every level of your business – protecting your technology in every aspect of what you do. Putting in firewalls, anti-virus software, and even intrusion detection systems will prevent unauthorized access. Managed IT services can also provide training to help educate all of your employees on identifying and avoiding cybersecurity risks. Most importantly, in the event of an attack, managed IT services can make sure your data is quickly restored, minimizing downtime and impact on productivity. When employees feel confident their tools and data are secure, they can work more efficiently and with less anxiety.

Align Scalable Solutions with Business Growth

As businesses continue to grow, a lot of their needs evolve with change. Your IT needs are not immune to this. With growth comes need for change in your technology to keep up with that growth especially if you want to continue getting bigger. Managed IT services offer scalable solutions that adapt to changing requirements, ensuring that employees will always have access to the tools they need to perform their duties effectively. Cloud solutions are some of the biggest game changers that managed IT services can offer. These help enable businesses to leverage cloud computing for seamless collaboration and remote access – as well as backup for data storage. 

By analyzing your business’ usage patterns, MSPs can recommend and implement solutions that optimize performance. This uses the resources you already have at hand to help make your business more efficient and productive. Many MSPs also offer customizable service packages, meaning you won’t have to pay for solutions you’re not using. Get the impact and services you need now, and add the others later as your business grows. Businesses can scale services up or down, ensuring employees always have adequate resources. These scalable solutions reduce bottlenecks and support constant productivity – even during periods of rapid growth. 

Access to Cutting-Edge Tech

With most businesses, staying successful means staying ahead of your competitors. Technology is a big player in this, as staying competitive often means having access to the latest and greatest technology that’s out there. Managed IT services always have their finger on the pulse of what’s coming in tech, and that means they can provide businesses with up-to-date tools, software, and expertise. This can give your employees the resources they need to work more efficiently. 

Software updates are vital to keep up with advancements in technology, and MSPs ensure that all software is current, enhancing functionality and security. While that might seem pretty basic on a technological front, managed IT services also have access to a number of advanced tools. From AI-powered analytics to state-of-the-art communication platforms, MSPs offer access to tools that streamline all of your workflows. They will also provide expert guidance and insight into emerging technologies that can further enhance productivity in your business. Employees equipped with modern tools can accomplish tasks faster and more effectively, driving overall productivity.

Data Analytics for Informed Decisions

Managed IT services often include data analytics solutions that empower businesses to make more informed decisions. By providing insights into employee workflows, MSPs can help identify a number of areas of improvement. Performance metrics are a big part of this, as tracking system performance and usage patterns highlights inefficiencies. MSPs can also implement tools that collect and analyze employee feedback on your current IT systems. This can help streamline the overall process for the people that are actually using the technology. Insights from these analytics can guide changes that enhance overall productivity. 

The tech landscape evolves rapidly, and businesses must adapt to stay competitive. This data is a crucial tool in keeping things efficient, and managed IT services drive innovation and adaptability to make sure your employees will have the tools they need to succeed. MSPs perform regular assessments of your systems to recommend updates or upgrades. By staying ahead of industry trends, MSPs can also use your date to keep you ahead of industry trends – positioning you to leverage new opportunities. This adaptability aligns your strategies with your goals, and makes sure your employees are working with the most effective and relevant tools. 

Compliance and Risk Management

Many industries are subject to strict regulatory requirements. Whether these guidelines are put in place by a government entity or are just an in-house standard set by the business owners, managed IT services help businesses maintain their compliance to help reduce the risk of penalties and other disruptions. MSPs understand the requirements of various industries, typically because they’ve worked with a variety of different businesses. They can make sure your systems are compliant and that your data is safe. 

Because of their familiarity with these various industries and understanding of what you need, many MSPs will offer audit support. This creates a system of providing comprehensive documentation and reporting to streamline your overall audit process. Proactive measures will reduce the likelihood of non-compliance and all of the consequences that come with it. By managing your compliance effectively, businesses can focus on their core activities without having to worry about regulatory hurdles.

Reduce Stress with Satisfied Employees

Pretty much everybody has seen it. If there’s an issue with technology, there’s been an employee that has complained about it to everyone they can see. Technical issues and outdated systems can frustrate even the best employees, leading to stress and reduced job satisfaction. Managed IT services can alleviate a lot of those concerns with proactive measures. By performing preventative maintenance, the MSP will be on top of everything to ensure consistent performance for all of your systems. 

A lot of frustration can come from the downtime experienced by the employee if something isn’t working right. Responsive support is a main calling card of any reliable managed IT service. They strive to give employees prompt assistance with any issue, minimizing their frustration and getting them back to working more quickly. MSPs implement intuitive solutions that are easy to navigate, making your system more user-friendly for all of your employees. When those employees are supported by reliable technology, the experience less stress and have greater job satisfaction – which means higher productivity.

There is a lot of stress that surrounds technology solutions, and that stress isn’t only felt by the employees. The business owners have to look at the bottom line, too. Many businesses know they need some type of IT solution, and managed IT services can get them the support they need without having to break the bank to get them. For more information on managed IT solutions and how they might be right for your business, reach out to the experts at designDATA today.

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The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud for Remote Work Productivity

The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud for Remote Work Productivity

The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud for Remote Work Productivity

DesignDATA
The Benefits of Moving to the Cloud for Remote Work Productivity

Four-minute read

The tech industry notoriously loves to use nebulous and arbitrary buzzwords, like “big data,” “net neutrality,” or “machine learning.” Rest assured, though, cloud computing isn’t one of them.

In reality, the concept of the cloud has been floating around since the 1960s (even if it was just a wild concept at the time). Since then, however, it has not only been fully realized but has matured rapidly to level the playing field among businesses of all sizes.

What is “The Cloud”?

In the simplest terms, “the cloud” or “cloud computing” involves storing and accessing data over the internet instead of in some physical infrastructure, like your computer’s hard drive. Within this definition, there are three distinct service models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

IaaS
This encompasses the fundamental building blocks of computing that can be rented, whether that’s physical or virtual servers, storage or networking.

PaaS
This is the next layer up from IaaS. On top of the underlying storage, networking, and virtual servers, PaaS also includes the tools and software required to build applications, including middleware, database management, operating systems, and development tools.

SaaS
As expected, this is the delivery of applications as a service. SaaS is likely the version of cloud computing that most people are familiar with because the underlying hardware and operating system are generally irrelevant to the typical end-user, who will access the service via a web browser or app.

Yes, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS are distinctly different service models, but they are not mutually exclusive. While many organizations understand and utilize more than one, the concept of the massive power-consuming data processing that is happening on the other end in a data center may be a bit ambiguous to an individual user. Moreover, cloud computing is such a large umbrella concept that you may not even know you’re using it. However, if you’re taking advantage of applications like Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Dropbox, and a slew of others, you’re already exploiting the cloud!

Cloud Deployment Models

Cloud Deployment Models

There are plenty of cloud service providers in the market, but the most popular are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. As you research cloud providers to identify one that offers services that best fit your organization, you’ll also have five main cloud deployment models to choose from: public, private, hybrid, community, and multi-cloud.

Public
This is the classic, most popular cloud-computing model. With a public cloud, you don’t own any hardware; users access a large pool of computing power over the internet from a cloud service provider. With this model, you gain the ability to rapidly scale a service because of the vast amounts of computing power available from the “multi-tenant” architecture.

Private
This is essentially the opposite of the public cloud. With the private cloud, organizations can benefit from the flexibility of the public cloud but also gain an added layer of data security because all information is tucked away behind the corporate firewall. Therefore, companies can control precisely where their data is being held with customized infrastructure.

Hybrid
As expected, this model combines private and public cloud environments. Some less-sensitive data is stored in the public cloud, and the more sensitive projects are stored in the private cloud (which can also be on-premise servers). In the hybrid model, organizations utilize multiple vendors with different cloud usage levels to work as one system.

Community
This model represents a cloud dedicated to a few organizations within the same community. In this case, it’s not a public cloud (because it’s essentially “members only”), but it’s also not a private cloud dedicated to a single company. Although it’s not particularly popular, it’s worth being aware of.

Multi-cloud
As the name suggests, this model uses more than one cloud provider at a time for redundancy, or increased reliability. Although all public cloud providers provide options for fail-safes, accidents still happen. With multiple cloud providers, you have an added layer of security and comfort knowing that if an accident occurs with one provider, your backup provider will still be available.

How Does It Work?

At a basic level, companies rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider rather than owning onsite infrastructure or data centers. At this point, nearly any service that doesn’t require you to be physically close to the computer hardware that you are using can now be delivered via the cloud.

Although there’s a significant amount of cloud-related information, here’s the takeaway: with an internet
connection, cloud computing allows you to work anywhere, anytime.

Benefits

Traditionally the most widely discussed benefit is avoiding the upfront cost of owning and maintaining on-premise IT infrastructure, decreased complexity, increased security, and faster deployment times. However, in this era, the focus is shifting to the benefits for remote-work productivity: connectivity and accessibility, increased collaboration, and improved efficiency.

Connectivity and accessibility
With cloud technology, users within your organization can access all your files from anywhere, using any device. All information is accessible 24/7 with an internet connection. With that freedom also comes decreased risk since files are no longer stored on any physical computer.

Increased collaboration
Switching to the cloud supports simultaneous syncing, working, and sharing files in real-time, thereby increasing the collaboration and efficiency of employees. Now the location of employees is insignificant; employees from all over the world can collaborate seamlessly.

Improved efficiency
Gone are the days when you worry about your organization’s power requirements, space considerations, expensive computer hardware, or software updates. Similarly, the downtime associated with these issues is in the past. When you shift to the cloud, your entire company can stay focused on building quality relationships that generate revenue, not on IT issues.

The Future of Remote Work

Increased flexibility, enhanced integration capabilities, improved work processes, and reduced overhead costs will continue to drive organizations to utilize the cloud. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can now compete with larger corporations as new, powerful web-based business apps shift the financial costs and bridge the “software divide” that once separated them.

With this technology, SMBs can measure significant benefits from their cloud investments, including increased productivity throughout their organization. With unbounded connectivity and accessibility, increased collaboration, and improved efficiency, your organization can operate at its intended level.

Are you curious about how you can boost internal productivity? Our experts would be honored to answer any questions you may have – and don’t forget to check out our free monthly training session focused on enabling your teams to do their best work.

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Why Email Is Dead – And What to Do About It

Why Email Is Dead – And What to Do About It

Why Email Is Dead – And What to Do About It

DesignDATA
Why Email Is Dead – And What to Do About It

Three-minute read

Email is the physical mailbox of the virtual world. It was designed to make it easy for anyone to reach anyone about anything and, thus, was built for broad, ubiquitous communication. But organization needs have drastically changed since the creation of virtual mailboxes. Now, companies require collaboration hubs that tick off all the communication-needs boxes. Moreover, not only is email becoming less useful, but it is also pulling engagement away from the effectiveness of your collaboration hub.

Below, we outline three key design features that prevent email from being a suitable mechanism for collaboration. We hope this information allows you to make an informative decision with your fellow teammates about how to shift communications to your collaboration hub.

  1. Anyone can email you about anything The ping of an email inbox can draw your attention to an important document, a marketing solicitation, or a phishing scheme – there is no prioritization. Last in is the first up, and important contextual information is missing. Who is this from? What is this about? Do I need to take any action on this?
  2.  Email inboxes are terrible knowledge repositories Information quickly gets buried in email. Depending on who is cc’d on what, conversations become fractured into an array of email strings that need to be pieced together. Teams also run into version control issues as each team member works on a different static version of the same document. All these inconveniences add up, bringing down organizational productivity.
  3. Email is built for one and done communication Have you ever selected “reply all” when you meant to send a private message to the sender? Ever sent an emotionally charged message that you wished you could pull back? Recognized a careless typo immediately after clicking send? Forgot to attach the document you referenced in the body of the message? Ever been the victim of a steady stream of responses that all essentially just confirm receipt (“I got it” / “Thanks”)? Email is simply not conducive to revision, recall, or response, and this lack often causes frustration and misunderstandings.

A collaboration hub, such as MS Teams or Slack, is designed to solve these problems. For example, messages can be easily edited and deleted. As well, information is organized by team, topic, and project, providing important context and keeping all the pieces of a conversation connected. You can also “@” someone to draw attention to the fact that they are being asked to respond. All of these factors improve the quality and efficiency of communication and collaboration. For these reasons and then some, we are currently working on getting zero internal communications via email, ensuring we take advantage of our organization’s more efficient technologies.  

If you’re curious about implementing a collaboration hub or have one but are unsure how to optimize team use, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We would love to discuss critical factors specific to your organization that will help ease the transition or improve your current workflows.  

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Why You Should Move Over to Microsoft Teams

Why You Should Move Over to Microsoft Teams

Why You Should Move Over to Microsoft Teams

DesignDATA
Why You Should Move Over to Microsoft Teams

Two-minute read

Every day I get asked the following questions:

⇒ How can my team collaborate better?
⇒ How can we minimize the number of applications we use?
⇒ How can I decrease the cost of the subscriptions we use?

My response is always the same: by switching over to Microsoft Teams. Here are some of the ways this all-out platform responds to the above concerns:

Save Money

Microsoft Teams does what 3-5 of your existing subscriptions do, so why not pay once and continue doing all you need to do, plus more?

One App to Rule the World

Speed up collaboration and increase your organization’s productivity levels by using one app for everything. Some of the features Teams can provide are:

⇒ Business Voice
⇒ Chat windows
⇒ Meetings
⇒ File management
⇒ Project management

Integrations

Microsoft has over 200 app integrations. Connect to other apps easily so that you can continue to collaborate. This also offers extensive flexibility, so you can make Teams work for you and customize your usage to fit every team’s unique needs.

Stay Connected – Anytime, Anywhere

Microsoft Teams addresses the need to communicate with remote, hybrid, and traveling employees. With the Teams phone app, you have immediate access to all apps and documents. You can even respond to chat conversations, join video calls, and continue collaborating on projects.

Improved Collaboration and Communication

Because of the integration with Office 365, you don’t need to switch apps when collaborating on a document. You can create the Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document in Teams, immediately share it with your coworkers, and co-author in the blink of an eye.

Other Fantastic Features

Call transfer is easy – no more blindsiding your coworkers anymore! Simply send them a quick heads up before transferring the call.
Compatibility – Teams is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices.
Integration – Teams is fully integrated with Office 365 and can integrate with most major applications.

designDATA’s Microsoft Support

With Microsoft Teams and Business Voice, you don’t have to sacrifice the features you need or love. Our experts offer implementation and support for Microsoft solutions – if your organization requires support or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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Technology and Flexible Work: Why Implementing a Central Collaboration Hub Is Key

Technology and Flexible Work: Why Implementing a Central Collaboration Hub Is Key

Technology and Flexible Work: Why Implementing a Central Collaboration Hub Is Key

DesignDATA
Technology and Flexible Work: Why Implementing a Central Collaboration Hub Is Key

Five-minute read

It’s inevitable – flexible work is the future of work. For organizations that can turn this practice into a core competency, the gains will be invaluable, like attracting and retaining the best talent and, thus, performing better for those their business serves. Ultimately, these organizations will have a massive competitive advantage.

So, how can you turn this practice into a core competency?

Conditions of an Effective Distributed Work Strategy

Unfortunately, there is no objective “right” answer. Like any organizational competency, its proper application is very much dependent on the context. It is critical to thoroughly examine the work you do, who you do it with, and how. This information will help you focus your organization’s finite resources and tolerance for change on the areas that will have the most significant positive impact.

It’s a matter of balancing the different factors to best suit the interests of both the organization and its people. In my view, two key elements are equity and intentionality; when policies are created as a reflex or based on the “squeaky wheel,” it increases the risk that the solution to one problem becomes the root cause of another. A diverse group of stakeholders should therefore be heard to ensure all perspectives are considered.

Another central aspect of implementing an effective distributed work strategy will be your team’s technology needs.

Technology bridges the divide between the various places from which team members work. It forms the foundation of how teams communicate, collaborate, and find valuable information and should ultimately be at the forefront of any flexible work strategy.

Exploring all aspects of remote work technology and their implications can be a daunting task. Where should you start?

Implementing a Single Collaboration Hub

We have found that one of the most productive places to start is the implementation of – and organization-wide commitment to – a single collaboration hub like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zoom.

There are many benefits to creating a central collaboration space:

  1. Knowledge workers spend an exorbitant amount of time simply looking for the information they need to do their job. Your collaboration hub becomes a single, easily searchable library of your organization’s knowledge. This includes structured and unstructured data. For example, did you know that, post recorded meeting, you can add captions to your video in Microsoft Teams? These captions become searchable. So, for example, if you are looking for any mention of “Project X” in your last ten team meetings, you can easily find each meeting where it is mentioned instead of diving into hours of recordings.
  2. Within distributed teams, especially those without a mature approach to data governance, information silos run rampant. The hub becomes a central place for real-time and time-independent (asynchronous) collaboration in all forms, including video, phone, chat, and document editing and sharing. The alternative is having “pieces of the puzzle” dispersed among different file storage locations, email platforms, productivity suites, and video conferencing applications.
  3. It offers important context for communication, allowing team members to focus energy and attention on the tasks that matter most. In the collaboration hub, communications and resources are organized with purpose (e.g., by project, department, or group) as opposed to email, where the last communication appears first, regardless of source or priority. In Microsoft Teams and the like, you can also use the “thumbs up” or other reactions to acknowledge an instruction or verify you have taken a requested action. This is far more effective than subjecting yourself to a never-ending stream of emails that convey the important information of: “I got it.”

Your collaboration hub enhances knowledge management, minimizes distractions and unproductive time, and serves as a force multiplier, amplifying the impact of individual contributors and teams.

Why do some implementations succeed where others don’t? Let’s look at how we can avoid common pitfalls:

It all starts with leadership modeling
One of the most pervasive challenges we see with widespread implementation is members of the leadership team continuing to communicate and collaborate in the ways they always have. When the epicenter of power and influence is pulling communications away from the collaboration hub, adoption stays low and, unfortunately, the value of the hub gets exponentially greater as more people use it.

Leadership also has an important role to play in championing the value that the change will bring to the organization and its people. There must be a compelling vision of the future for people to feel compelled to make a change. Leadership must also highlight employees that are embodying best practices and demonstrating effective use cases. Some organizations are going as far as to include collaboration as a performance review criterion.

Invest in the consultative piece of the project prior to implementation
It used to be a technological feat to stand up a new software program. Now it’s as easy as flicking a switch. This is a double-edged sword in that it can lead to build-before-design challenges. These collaboration hubs are like houses – once you move all your furniture in and start living in it, it becomes much harder to re-architect the house. It is important that organizations assess the way departments and teams collaborate and get work done, what applications are currently in use throughout the organization, where critical files currently live and then develop sound governance and standards around how that should function going forward.

And lastly, training
The phrase “learning curve” exists for a reason. We are all creatures of habit and changing the way we work is always uncomfortable. Being conscious that there is a valuable skill we do not have yet is painful. That is why an engaging and practical training program needs to be implemented. This will help empower staff to move through that awkward phase of adoption where we all feel less than fully competent. Training resources need to be in place to accompany the team through that technology initiative ‘death valley.’

How designDATA can help with your hybrid work solutions

The value of a managed service provider (MSP) is their ability to leverage technology to improve business processes and outcomes. This requires truly understanding the business of the organizations it serves and aligning IT operations in a consultative way.

One of the common frustrations we hear from prospective clients is that their MSP is not driving the technology agenda forward; it is not proactively facilitating the strategic conversations to anticipate opportunities and challenges. Without this level of partnership, IT cannot fulfill the ultimate promise of IT operations: serving as a vehicle to take teams from where they are to where they want to go.
designDATA is happy to share the approach we employ to achieve these results for our clients. We are always excited to exchange best practices and lessons learned with other mission-driven organizations.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to explore the issues that matter most to you!

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Why MDM is Essential for Managing Apple Devices in the Workplace

Why MDM is Essential for Managing Apple Devices in the Workplace

Why MDM is Essential for Managing Apple Devices in the Workplace

DesignDATA
Why MDM is Essential for Managing Apple Devices in the Workplace

Four-minute read

Scooch over, Microsoft – Apple has entered the cubicle.

A few years ago, Macs were a rarity in offices; most professional software was designed to work on Windows machines, giving them a considerable advantage in the business market. Now, everything has changed; iPhones, iPads, and Macbooks are ubiquitous, and for good reason!

People love the Mac operating system and are familiar with how Apple devices work. Apps and business tools are increasingly Mac friendly, and Apple has worked hard to develop and highlight features that boost productivity and simplify IT management.

While implementing Apple products for businesses has been fantastic for boosting creativity, flexibility, and productivity, it’s presented a new challenge for IT teams. These teams must stay on top of managing a plethora of devices while keeping data secure and employees connected.

Mobile Device Management (MDM) is a must-have tool for an IT team to succeed; whether you’re a small or large business, you must implement the right MDM solution when using Apple products.

Let’s take a look at why an MDM is critical for your business’s management and success.

1. Security

MDM ensures that your mobile device is secure. In today’s world, mobile devices not only enable employees to work from anywhere but also open up new avenues for potential cyber attacks. MDM serves as your team’s first line of defense, maintaining company data security across all mobile devices.

Apple devices are equipped with a host of built-in security features such as FileVault encryption, Gatekeeper software verification, and TouchID. However, these features can be easily disabled, leaving your devices vulnerable. A robust MDM solution ensures these security features are not only enabled but also functioning correctly across all devices. It allows you to block specific software, disable camera access, distribute security patches, and mandate the regular creation of complex passcodes by employees.

Moreover, MDM provides a safety net for those inevitable instances when mobile devices are lost by employees or stolen. In such scenarios, your MDM solution steps in to locate the lost device, locking it until it’s recovered or remotely locking it and wiping all data, ensuring your essential data remains protected.

2. Productivity

Employee productivity is for business owners what security is for IT teams: top priority.  With cloud-based applications and mobile devices, people can work from anywhere.  This results in increased flexibility and higher productivity, but only if employees can access the data and applications they need.

MDM solutions allow your employees to securely access your company network, data, and applications from anywhere, including custom apps that may not be available in Apple’s App Store. MDM identifies critical applications and deploys them to your users.

Plus, you can even create lists of applications specific to certain job roles, departments, or users and allow access to those who need them. In this way, employees have access to the applications they need without being overwhelmed by the ones they don’t.

If an employee needs a new application, MDM makes it quick and easy to grant access and push the application to the correct device. This is quickly done through custom settings in the App Store. As well, MDM makes it simple to share important information between mobile device users. Thus, implementing a robust MDM solution is one of the best ways to foster productivity in your company’s remote work environment.

3. MDM simplifies device management

Whether your company provides Apple devices to employees or lets them use their own through a BYOD program, managing every device can be challenging.

MDM simplifies this process and offers workflows that let your team quickly set up new devices, enroll new users, reset old devices, install updates, and troubleshoot IT issues.  You can monitor devices to make sure that policies are being followed and employees are avoiding risky cyber-behaviour. You can also control access to company networks so that only approved devices can connect.

A good MDM solution allows you to monitor your devices remotely. You can quickly push settings, updates, and IT fixes to devices using over-the-air (OTA) distribution, and your team can detect issues as they arrive, having solutions already prepared.

Top-notch MDM solutions also allow you to implement time-saving practices like “zero-touch” deployment and custom scripting that enable you to customize your devices and modify account permissions as needed.

Truly – the time and cost savings realized from simplified device management are priceless.

Choosing Your MDM Solution

It’s clear that MDM is critical for managing Apple products; now to choose which solution is right for you. There are many MDM solutions on the market, and it’s integral to choose one that works with your priorities. Consider things like value, device compatibility, security features, application management, and support features.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t worry. We are here to help.

Visit our resource page for additional information like comprehensive guide on Apple IT support for macOS and iOS.

For tailored support and IT solutions optimized for Apple products, connect with our experts. We’ll guide you to the ideal MDM solution to secure and enhance productivity while managing devices with ease.

Ready to elevate your Apple ecosystem?

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