Software7.05.2013

Balancing security and end-user experience in the mobile workforce

With growing demand from end-users for smart, mobile technologies that help them do their day to day work more efficiently and effectively, organisations need to put in place holistic enterprise mobility strategies that meet their long-term business needs as well as their employees’ demands for a good user experience.

That’s according to Alexandra Zagury, MD for South and Southern Africa at BlackBerry®, who says that the trend towards mobile computing creates a range of opportunities for organisations to streamline their businesses and enhance productivity, provided they get the basics of mobile security and device management right.

Zagury says that the world of work is rapidly changing as end-users embrace cloud and mobile technologies to be productive wherever they are. Cisco TechWatch 2013 research, for example, shows that by 2016, 76% of companies think operations in their organisations will be structured on the basis of the most efficient use of skills and resources, regardless of where they are located.

But as they work from locations other than the secure enterprise network, end-users will be carrying smartphones and tablet computers containing a wealth of valuable data and privileged access to corporate networks and applications.

“The imperative for IT departments is to empower these users with a mobile work environment that provides a rich, intuitive user experience while ensuring that corporate information assets are secure,” says Zagury.

“Mobile computing platforms need to be more robust and scalable to support a workforce that wants seamless access to the same corporate applications and data, wherever they are, and at any time,” says Zagury. “It is not just about a BYOD strategy, but putting in place the mixture of BYOD and corporate-use policies that are right for your organisation.”

The new BlackBerry® 10 platform is designed to offer a great end user experience, yet also makes the IT administrator’s life simpler with a range of features to streamline information security and administration.

“Enterprise customers have depended on BlackBerry technology to securely enable their workforces to work wherever they are and at any time for well over a decade. The BlackBerry 10 platform builds on this heritage of rock-solid information security with a host of features for secure end-to-end mobility,” says Zagury.

BlackBerry 10 with BlackBerry® Balance™ technology – managed by BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 – makes life simple for the IT administrator. Some of the powerful features these technologies enable include:

The BlackBerry 10 Smartphone Password
A BlackBerry® 10 smartphone gives you only 10 password attempts, which means end-users don’t need to remember long and complex passwords to protect their phones. After all, the chances of someone guessing a four-character password in just 10 tries are minuscule. That translates into fewer calls to your helpdesk from users who have forgotten their passwords.
The password is required to modify most of the security settings. That means unauthorised users won’t have any luck trying to remove the password or other security features if a user leaves a phone unattended.

The BlackBerry ID
BlackBerry® ID is the single sign-on for all the BlackBerry® sites, services and applications, including BlackBerry® World™, BlackBerry® Protect, and BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger). With BlackBerry ID, it is simple to switch to a new BlackBerry 10 smartphone. When users lose or change BlackBerry smartphones, they’ll find their data and apps on their new BlackBerry 10 smartphones when they log in with a BlackBerry ID. That’s one less headache for the IT department.

Secure applications
With BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, IT departments are empowered to secure corporate data and applications on personal BYOD devices. This solution makes it easy to manage and curate a corporate app storefront – BlackBerry World for Work. IT departments can push and install mandatory apps to BlackBerry 10 devices. There is a high level of application security and integration of applications built into the BlackBerry 10 user experience.

BlackBerry Protect
BlackBerry Protect allows users to remotely locate a BlackBerry smartphone, set a password, and even wipe it from anywhere with an Internet connection. It’s a standard feature in every BlackBerry 10 smartphone and empowers a user to react immediately if he or she loses a smartphone or suspects it has been stolen.

BlackBerry Balance
Your end-users will use their smartphones for both work and play. BlackBerry Balance with the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 lets them separate their work life from their personal lives so that they can access their favourite personal apps without compromising the security of work connectivity, email, and corporate apps.

Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter