Our global connected workforce is more enabled than ever thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices, so it makes sense for organizations to actively work to harness and leverage the remarkable power associated with mobility in the enterprise.

Enterprise mobility brings improvements in productivity and efficiency to everyday business functions. It can help organizations save time while cutting costs — clear, valuable benefits for any business.

To ensure you’re getting the most out of mobility, it’s imperative you’re enabling employees with simple and secure access to corporate resources regardless of where they are or what device they’re using.

But before your organization goes about providing employees free rein with regard to access, there are some important issues to address first.

Access and Lost Productivity

Sure it’s common sense, but it’s still important to reiterate: Openly providing access to your users without controls will not work. Obviously you desire cross-team collaboration, but that shouldn’t mean everyone has access to all content. There must be a level of context and controls depending on the role of individual users.

Another issue that must be addressed revolves around the authentication methods you utilize. Demanding too much, such as having users input multiple login credentials to access different apps and docs, could inhibit productivity and force users to access or store sensitive content on unsecure third-party channels.

That’s only the start of the security problems.

Security Concerns Around Access

Last year, insider threats were responsible for more than 50 percent of data breaches, according to IBM X-Force research. With breaches averaging an almost $3.8 million loss for organizations, it’s a threat you can’t afford.

It can be difficult to identify the fox guarding the henhouse in your business. Providing access to all data to all users is a dangerous decision for your organization.

Another security concern deals with the devices themselves and the possibility that they contain malware or have been jailbroken by users. If there is no solution within your organization that gives IT admins the capabilities to check device compliance and security, providing permission for these devices not only invites the user to see the data, but malicious outsiders, as well.

Yet even with all the potential problems around security, there is a simple solution that can help solve these issues, all while boosting productivity, increasing efficiency and cutting costs.

Mobile Identity Management

IBM’s MaaS360 enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution with mobile identity management provides IT managers with the capabilities they need to ensure the right users get access to the content they need when they need it, all with a great user experience.

Employees will get secure, convenient access to enterprise resources on apps and cloud services with single sign-on authorization. IT admins can create and enforce policies that determine a user’s access from their corporate or personal mobile devices, as well as have risk-based and conditional access controls, granular policy controls and the ability monitor device compliance — all from a single console.

If a device within your mobile work environment is infected, jailbroken or rooted, you can block access automatically. To ensure users have a frictionless experience, MaaS360’s mobile identity management also features biometric capabilities so users can simply touch the device to access the resources they need.

Benefits and Free Trial

IBM MaaS360’s mobile solutions will give you the ability to spur the mobile collaboration you need while ensuring the strongest security and controls. Try it out for your organization with a free 30-day trial and see firsthand how you can ensure the right people get access to the right resources at the right time.