In today’s world, employees are increasingly using smartphones, such as iPhones, and tablets, such as iPads, for work related purposes. In fact, media tablet sales reached 19.5 million units in 2010 and in a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey of over 1,000 consumers, one in five reported that they planned to use their new iPad for business purposes. Of course, the blending of personal and work related devices has numerous advantages for companies and employees, allowing employees to more easily connect to work when out of the office. However, companies need to have mobile device management policies in place, including iPhone management and iPhone security.
Overall, iPhone management is essential. Fully one quarter of companies allow BYOD but do not have any kind of management system in place and a third of employees who use a personal mobile device for work say that their company’s data is not encrypted or secure. This could have catastrophic implications. For example, imagine a company phone was lost or stolen from an employee that contained confidential company information. Anyone could easily gain access. Therefore, here needs to a policy in place to protect this information or data. Therefore, iphone management, including security policies and patch management software, is absolutely essential.