Today’s New IT Standards: What You Need to Mobilize Your Organization

In the past, work was done at your desk. IT provided the systems and devices, and everything was done with on-premise applications. Today, about two-thirds of businesses use third-party SaaS services, which is forcing work beyond the firewall, and the use of mobile devices is on the rise. To keep up, companies need to take control of these devices and effectively mobilize their organizations. But how?

Simply put, mobilization means the traditional role of company IT services is evolving. It’s not just about managing user access anymore—it’s also about managing devices. Okta’s recent Businesses At Work report found that more than 80% of users are accessing their enterprise apps from mobile devices.

People and departments can’t work in isolation from one another anymore. As they move into the same digital space, connectivity is increasing. All devices need to be visible and managed by administrators from one central place.

What’s the best way to approach mobilization? Employees are going to use their mobile devices for work, whether it’s supported or not. To make sure they do so as securely and efficiently as possible, you’ll need to put the infrastructure in place to support it.

1. Enable seamless, secure access Your users should be able to log into any native mobile or cloud app, on any device, with Single Sign-On (SSO). The result is quicker access to key tools and files, more efficient work, and fewer errors (such as forgotten logins) that IT teams need to support.

2. Increase security with multi-factor authentication With unique devices registered per user, organizations can use the “what you have” principle of security to better secure every user login with Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (AMFA). With AMFA IT can use contextual access management to allow, deny, or require step-up authentication for access to applications and on-prem systems based on contextual data about the user, device, network, location, and resource.

3. Integrate user identity and mobility On mobile devices, application configuration can be complex and time consuming, and accessing login credentials can be a big hassle when users need access to information quickly. By extending your Identity platform to mobile, it’s simple to automatically set up a user's devices during enrollment based on their profile and existing group policies. Once enrolled, the user can have one-touch access to all the credentials they need to access their corporate apps and data.

4. Integrate your Lifecycle ManagementManage your user lifecycles from a single administrative account, and make sure it supports automatic provisioning and deprovisioning of services that extends to selectively wiping corporate apps and data from managed devices. This reduces administrative overhead while still offering full control over your users.

The fastest way to mobilize your organization Most businesses struggle to leverage their existing tools to embrace mobilization— that can be time-consuming and expensive. Instead, extend your IT infrastructure with a 100% cloud-based Mobility Management solution to gain the productivity benefits of a mobile enabled workforce—without compromising security.

Okta SSO + MFA + Mobility Management enables IT to have a single solution for managing identity, control access, and secure devices without any on premises software to install and maintain.

Learn how Okta’s enterprise-grade Mobility Management solutions make it easy for your office to expand beyond its walls, without compromise.

Try Okta for yourself for 30 days free.