Mobile End Points Not Just Mobile Device or Mobile App Management

Mobile Data End Points

I was researching consumer mobility trends this morning.  It turns out that for the first time people are accessing their mobile devices for news more often than television, radio, magazines and newspapers.  They expect mobile devices to be their trusted source of information.  What does this new development mean for businesses?  I believe it means that customers will begin, if they don't already, to expect businesses to supply more account and products information on mobile devices because that is where they turn to for information.

I believe that in many cases the information that customers want to access on a mobile device is nearly the same information that the field service engineer needs.  The customer wants to know when the field service engineer will arrive on location.  They want to know their account, product and service history.  They want to know the status of their service ticket and the invoice amount.

As more of these kinds of mobile applications are developed, it will become increasingly important for IT departments to keep track of what data they are sharing with employees, customers and the general public via mobile apps. 

It is not sufficient for companies to monitor and manage the mobile devices and mobile apps of their employees.  It is the corporate data that must be managed.  The data that leaves the enterprise database must be managed and tracked to the end point.  The end point is any device that may access and store your corporate data.

I realize that I may be stating the obvious, but all of us in enterprise mobility like to talk about MDM (mobile device management) and security as being important, but it is more than that.  It is really about managing the data correctly in mobile environments.

Do you agree?

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Networked Field Services

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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.