Develop & Enforce Policies that Securely Enable a Mobile Workforce
Prepare your policies for a future when mobile personas are more important than mobile devices.
- User policies are often created ad hoc or based on outdated policies designed for specific corporate-issued devices.
- The number of possible technology policies to enable or disable is daunting, and deciding which policies to apply to which users can appear to be a monumental task.
- Poorly thought-out policies can increase support and management costs, especially if something goes wrong.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Determine your policy goals based on a forward-looking view of your mobile workforce, and then design policies that align with your goals.
- Align your mobile policies with your broader mobile strategy, which should in turn align with your IT strategy.
Impact and Result
- A strong set of mobile user and technology policies will enable a productive workforce, no matter which mobile devices are being used.
- Automate enforcement of policies as much as possible to keep management and support costs down.
- Use this solution set to create policies that are carefully thought-out, communicated thoroughly, and effectively enforced. Your workforce will be mobilized in no time.
Develop & Enforce Policies that Securely Enable a Mobile Workforce
1. Understand the need for mobile policy
Understand the current situation with mobility in the enterprise, and how policies fit in.
2. Document your future mobile policy goals
Understand where the future of mobility lies, brainstorm forward-looking goals, and explore the benefits of each goal.
3. Document your current mobile situation
Inventory your current set of mobile policies, identify who is doing what with mobile to determine use cases, and assign user groups to risk profiles.
4. Identify gaps
Identify gaps between your goals and your current mobile situation, and determine steps needed to close these gaps.
5. Create mobile policies
Create and document strong policies, and invest in training and enforcement to give policies teeth.
6. Incorporate mobile policies into your IT strategy and revisit regularly
Document your policies, insert them into your larger strategies, and revisit them regularly.
Onsite Workshop: Develop & Enforce Policies that Securely Enable a Mobile Workforce
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Document your future mobile policy goals
The Purpose
To understand where mobility is going, so you can aim your goals there, including policies that embrace the dual personal and work personas
To brainstorm a set of forward-looking mobile policy goals
Key Benefits Achieved
An understanding of the state of mobile technology that leads to a future-proof set of mobile policy goals
Activities
Outputs
Brainstorm forward-looking mobile policy goals
- Mobile policy goals template
Analyze mobile policy goals
- Goals analysis worksheet (goals and benefits)
Module 2: Document your current mobile situation
The Purpose
-
To inventory your current set of mobile policies, if any
- To identify current use cases for mobile technology
- To assess risk and assign risk profiles to user groups
Key Benefits Achieved
- A baseline from which to identify gaps between your current situation and the goals you have outlined
Activities
Outputs
Review your mobile strategy and current inventory of mobile policies
- Mobile policy inventory
Identify who is doing what with mobile (use case diagram)
- Use case diagram with risk profiles
Tie risk profiles to roles
- Consolidated list of roles with use cases and risk profiles
Consolidate to a manageable list of roles
Module 3: Identify gaps
The Purpose
-
To identify gaps between your future goals and your current situation
- To identify the steps needed to close the gaps and achieve your goals
Key Benefits Achieved
- An action plan will allow your organization to begin moving forward in creating and refining your mobile policies, one step at a time
Activities
Outputs
Identify gaps between your current status and your future goals
- Goals analysis worksheet (gaps and steps)
Identify the policy-related steps that you need to take
- Detailed action plan
Identify the policy-related steps that you need to take
Build a detailed action plan
Module 4: Create mobile policies
The Purpose
- To begin taking action by creating or refining mobile policies
- To decide on technology policies to be applied
- To decide on user policies to distribute
- To address training on and enforcement of policies
Key Benefits Achieved
- A carefully thought-out set of technology policies and user policies, based on your forward-looking policy goals, will safely unlock the benefits of mobility within your organization
Activities
Outputs
Decide on technology policies
- List of technology policies and settings
Create a set of user policies
- List of technology policies and settings
- Acceptable use policy
- Remote wipe waiver
- Reimbursement policy
Plan a rollout and training program
- 12. Training slideshow
Module 5: Incorporate mobile policies into your IT strategy and revisit regularly
The Purpose
- To consolidate your mobile policies and insert them into your mobile strategy, which will be inserted into your broader IT strategy
- To determine responsibilities and develop a mobile roadmap
Key Benefits Achieved
- An understanding that policies are only part of a mobile strategy, which are in turn only party of an IT strategy
- A roadmap for implementing your policy decisions and revisiting decisions regularly
Activities
Outputs
Document mobile policies and insert them into your IT strategy
- Consolidated mobile policy document
Determine responsibilities and set a timeline for implementation
- Mobile roadmap
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Try Our Guided Implementations
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 2 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call #1 - Create a set of technology policies
An analyst will review your organization's current mobile strategy and technology policies, your long-term goals for mobility in your organization, and the types of technology policies needed.
- Call #2 - Create a set of user policies
At the appropriate milestone, an analyst will review your mobile strategy and long-term goals to help you establish the types of user policies needed.