mobility Archives - TeleConsult Solutions

Maintaining Security in the BYOD Environment

May 21, 2018 by The Christine Advantage dba TCS

In today’s constant connectivity landscape of smartphones and tablets, most companies have opened the door to bring your own device (BYOD) policies. However, BYOD poses some security concerns, which need to be addressed in a comprehensive security strategy.

Employees today want flexibility in how they bring value to their employer. Technological advancements have helped them achieve this, to the extent that they are beginning to desire more options, such as remote working opportunities, flexible hours, and new possibilities for how they complete their work. How can organizations maintain a high level of security while also providing a flexible work environment?

Target Rich (for Hackers) Environment

In the BYOD environment, hackers have more options as well. They’re exploiting weaknesses that have become readily apparent in far too many organizations. There is no shortage of stories about systems that have been left completely open to attack, stolen data, and tarnished reputations.

For organizations that have not put a security plan together, it’s not a question of if they’ll be hit by a cyberattack, but when.

Taking Precautions

Employees should be educated about the essential elements of security where device protection is concerned. They need to know that clicking on something suspicious in an email is more than likely a phishing ploy by a cybercriminal who has laid a trap that can open up an entire system to vulnerability.

Employees are generally the biggest risk to a system, but the system itself must also have the tools to combat security risks. This includes tools that provide visibility into applications, which can monitor activity and flag anomalies.

Some companies operate under the false impression that because they have their own Security Operations Center, they’re covered. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. They’re still not able to have complete visibility into all BYOD devices.

By partnering with the right vendor, you can bring a better security strategy to your organization. Rather than create a workflow bottleneck and cause communication roadblocks, partnering with the right vendor can improve your processes while giving you the assurance you need that you’ll be safe from attack.

At TeleConsult, our cybersecurity solutions are constantly monitored and improved to keep up with evolving and complex cybercriminal advancements, which have created an industry unto themselves. Contact us today to talk about how we can customize solutions for you.

Business Collaboration Trends You Can’t Ignore

February 19, 2018 by teleconsult

Staying connected in business seems like a pretty straightforward concept. But when technology enters the mix, a shoot-from-the-hip approach to business collaboration could leave your organization spending too much time and money on plans and applications. The reality is that business collaboration is critical to your success, has evolved considerably in the last few years, and is slated to only get better.

There are three trends gaining momentum in the marketplace overall that will enhance the way employees collaborate in the workplace and on the road. Let’s take a look at these trends and how business collaboration will continue to deliver clear value for its users and the bottom line.

Integration is key. One thing we know for sure is that businesses today rely on a number of different applications in order to be successful. With many of these applications operating in the unified communications space, the opportunities for integrating across multiple channels have never been better. The apps rising to the top are those offering APIs, or application programming interfaces that ensure the smooth and secure transfer of data between two different platforms. App makers want to be sure proprietary strongholds don’t get in the way of clean integration.

The inbox is getting a little less love. Email is great when you want to be sure employees can communicate and everyone is on the same page. It’s also a great way to ensure you have a paper trail. When it comes to business collaboration, however, it is losing ground as users are turning to collaboration apps. Slack is gaining a lot of ground for those who simply want quick interactions, and project management platforms like Basecamp allow for communication streams, documents, and all other activities to be kept in the same place and in real-time.

You have to be mobile. For so many organizations, the key to optimal business collaboration is the integration of mobile. Not only are professionals on the go, but an increasing number of businesses are ditching the brick-and-mortar approach in favor of virtual operations. The slashing of traditional overhead is great for the bottom line, but doing so demands access to robust technology solutions that promote efficiency, productivity, and top performance.

In today’s fast-paced environment, a strategic focus on how teams communicate and collaborate is essential to gaining a competitive advantage. If you’re ready to see what more effective collaboration can mean for your environment, contact TeleConsult today.

Key SMB Technologies in 2017: What to Watch

February 20, 2017 by teleconsult

Gartner’s recent list of trends in technology for 2017 paint an exceptionally interesting picture for any SMB willing to think big heading into the new year. Although accurate predictions of what the business/technology landscape will look like grow fuzzier and less distinct the further out we look, what seems clear now is that there will be ample opportunities for a forward-thinking SMB to leverage a number of key technologies in order to reach new levels of productivity – and even to deliver entirely new products, services, and customer experiences.

More Mobility

Although this may seem like just more of the same – after all, mobility has been a steadily growing aspect of business tech for years – adoption of services like cloud-based document storage, hosted VoIP, distributed project management, and communications suites are set to reach a critical mass that might just change how the majority of companies do business.

Intelligent Apps

Intelligent apps, sometimes called smart apps, are applications that leverage the burgeoning abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to support workers in becoming more productive, more creative, and more effective. The ways in which AI can be applied to business apps are already varied and nuanced, and we’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to potential uses.

At the moment, the most commonly used applications involve voice recognition and transcription as well as anticipating the information needs of workers – applications of great utility to an SMB.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

As is so often the case with new technology, what was once developed for the game room is now moving to the board room. Virtual reality (VR) creates an entirely artificial environment that is experienced by the user as though it was real by way of a VR headset. Augmented reality, most recently popularized by the game Pokémon Go, overlays the real world with additional information that only exists digitally, often through the use of a smart phone or tablet.

The human resources/training and customer contact applications of this technology are immediately useful for almost any SMB, and it also has implications, through its use in tele-presence solutions, in allowing a small business to expand operations over a wider geographical area without significantly increasing staffing.

Adaptive Security

Almost a combination of several of the previously mentioned technologies, adaptive security uses a multi-layered security framework and machine learning to identify and remember potential threats and protect against them in the future. This type of security is superior to inert security solutions in that it is always actively scanning the system for threats and breaches. It protects the network proactively rather than reactively, and does so more quickly than any human being could.

The development of cloud services and numerous “as a Service” technologies over the past decade have allowed SMBs to level the playing field and hold their own against much bigger corporations. These new developments might go one step further and allow SMBs to truly take advantage of their adaptability, flexibility, and agility to not just compete with big corporations – but to out-compete them.

Evolution of Unified Communications: Benefits, Drawbacks, and New Frontiers

January 9, 2017 by teleconsult

Many businesses today need to institute effective ways to simplify their sales funnel and customer relations processes. However, the way technology has rapidly expanded in such a short time has contributed to more disjointed communications. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to integrate every aspect of an interaction with an individual buyer, whether it involves touches on website pages, phone contacts, or emails. Businesses need to retain every interaction with each customer, but the rise of the mobile workforce makes this a difficult challenge.

Unified communications (UC) service providers seek to alter that dynamic. By developing a “single pane” of interaction that includes every customer “touch” and integrates resource planning systems with CRM software, a method is established for combining the information gathered through various connections. Yet problems occur when a salesperson makes contact with a buyer using their personal device.

Ideal Function

Ideally, UC should integrate all the information gleaned about a specific customer. The various forms of interaction, such as email, phone calls, and purchases made either online or through electronic POs would exist in one unified system, which could be accessed through a customer-specific dashboard. In principle, this would streamline service to create a comprehensive view of the customer history and simplify compliance performance by creating records of every contact.

As mobility options grow, more and more employees have the ability to connect with clients through their personal devices. In light of this, UC needs to be able to integrate the data accumulated within any mobile device management (MDM) program that the company utilizes to keep mobile interactions secure.

Creating a Comprehensive Customer Journey

Since CRM and ERP systems are part of mission critical operations, but there are countless ways to make phone calls, the idea of UC is beginning to evolve. Much like the expansion of software-defined networks, UC as a concept is adapting to become more effective. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are expanding and traditional telephony is receding, allowing companies to integrate more and more communication options into their operational systems.

This is good news for businesses. Building an infrastructure that has the ability to integrate mobile, web, and office-based activity into one system helps reduce costs and improve productivity. Moreover, it simplifies compliance performance so that businesses are able to effortlessly conform to volatile regulatory statutes.

Although the definition and execution of UC continues to evolve, the concept of retaining and being easily able to access the entire customer journey is one that businesses will continue to embrace because of the benefits it is able to produce.

Teamwork and Collaboration: What Has Changed and What Has Not

December 5, 2016 by teleconsult

Modern enterprises are more team-focused and collaborative in nature than ever before. This is in part thanks to the development of tools that enable immediate, robust, and effective communication and sharing of resources. The level of teamwork common in most businesses today simply wouldn’t be possible without these tools. What the discussion of the shift in the importance of teams often fails to account for, however, is the idea that the very nature of teams has changed just as much.

The vast majority of executives in mid-sized and larger enterprises know that effective communication is, without question, the most important element in enabling team collaboration. But the ease and comprehensive nature of that communication has altered what most people consider to be a team.

The New Teams

Once upon a time, a team within an organization would have been exactly that: inside the organization. This is no longer necessarily the norm.

Teams today make use of collaboration solutions that enable real-time sharing of almost any resource. They provide audio and video communication over data networks and, perhaps most importantly, user-based data access. This means that individuals with a stake in the operation of a business but who are not actually employed by that business can be given access to very specific data elements and can therefore be included in teams where collaboration would have been historically impossible.

Modern teams often include suppliers, partners, outside specialists, experts, and occasionally even customers.

Some Things Never Change

Teams may have a different makeup these days, and the ways in which they work might have changed, but many of the things businesses need to do to enable effective teamwork have not. It is still important to:

Look for methods that are:

complimentary to existing processes,
as easy to use and efficient as possible, and
designed to allow for true mobile functionality.

Identify signs of problems, such as

employees not using or even bypassing the tools they have,
poor integration with other business processes, and
collaboration tools that force users to work in ways they dislike, or that don’t allow for flexibility.

One of the elements here that remains absolutely unchanged over the past several years is the importance of robust mobile capabilities. As much as possible, users should have the same experience using their collaboration tools on a mobile device as they do at their desk. Employees should never feel limited by their use of a mobile device.

Many aspects of corporate teamwork have changed, while some have not. It is the businesses that know which are which that are able to provide their teams with the collaboration tools they need to work at peak efficiency.

Why Mobility Management Software Justifies BYOD

November 22, 2016 by teleconsult

Bring your own device (BYOD) is a trend sweeping businesses that want their employees to be able to work from any location. It opens the door to spending less on equipment and maintenance while expanding the workforce and driving more sales. Allowing staff members to use their personal communication devices presents a mix of advantages and concerns that can be addressed with the right mobility management software.

How BYOD Provides Flexibility

Whether a firm has under ten or over thousands of employees, BYOD policies save companies huge expenses on hardware. More cautious organizations, however, take the approach of giving employees a list of acceptable devices to use for both compatibility and security reasons. Other companies purchase a variety of devices from which employees can select. Employees often feel more empowered when they are allowed to choose the device with which they are most familiar or comfortable.

Countering Security Risks with Mobility Management

Management must be aware that unmonitored mobility can lead to security breaches that increase the risk of data loss or damaged files. BYOD also opens the door to issues of not meeting government regulations or industry standards. These concerns can be resolved by using a mobility management solution, which comprises the strategy, platform, and processes that merge enterprise software with mobile devices.

Regardless of whether the devices are supplied by the company or by employees, this integration offers the enterprise and its workforce more control and protection against security breaches. Supervisors are able to monitor and manage user access with the use of encryption and identity certificates. They can also decide on security, malware, and antivirus software.

Flexible Management Software Features

High quality mobility management platforms are flexible enough to provide a variety of deployment methods, making them useful for either local or cloud-based infrastructures. Businesses more concerned about future growth and scalability can benefit from cloud-based systems. Cloud providers also handle the more tedious tasks such as data backup and recovery.

Mobility management offers cross-platform options for controlling any type of device, operating system, or machine model. This capability is important since it eliminates the time and cost associated with employees being forced to use one brand when they are more productive with another. Furthermore, this platform allows administrators to manage all devices on a network at once, which is a simpler alternative to managing company-enforced equipment. It’s merely a matter of denying access to all devices except those that the company approves.

Why BYOD Is Worth Considering

One of the biggest advantages to BYOD is that it frees employees from their desktops. This ability is powerful for sales representatives who can communicate with the office while meeting with clients in the field. It’s also useful for connecting physicians and nurses on different floors of a hospital. It can also free up office space or even justify moving to a smaller physical location, which further cuts costs.

BYOD does, however, raise the risk of exposure to malware and other forms of cyber crime. Another concern is that sensitive information can get leaked if it ends up on unsecured mobile devices. Fortunately, administrators can use automation to set mobility management policies that protect company data. It’s important for decision makers to weigh the pros and cons to determine if BYOD makes economic and practical sense.

Posts Tagged: mobility

Maintaining Security in the BYOD Environment

Business Collaboration Trends You Can’t Ignore

Evolution of Unified Communications: Benefits, Drawbacks, and New Frontiers

Teamwork and Collaboration: What Has Changed and What Has Not

Why Mobility Management Software Justifies BYOD

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