Why Businesses Need to Implement Remote Network Monitoring?
The mobile workforce has become a black box: Organizations do not know what these employees do on their company-issued devices.
Part of remote network management, remote network monitoring is the practice of tracking bandwidth usage, device status, location, and other attributes.
With an MDM like AirDroid Business, IT teams can practice remote network monitoring(like monitoring the data usage) and take necessary action, such as remotely troubleshooting a device or even triggering a factory reset if a device is lost or stolen.
1Who is a remote network monitoring ideal for
There are two broad categories of organizations where remote network monitoring is necessary.
Remote and hybrid organizations
Any organization that enables employees to work from home must practice remote network monitoring. Even if their employees only work remotely one day a week, there are still substantial risks.
Employees may shirk their core responsibilities by surfing the net, chatting on social media, or streaming video. They may inadvertently expose the company to a cybersecurity threat, such as visiting a malicious website or losing their device.
This threat only increases the more days that employees are out of the office: They have more time to do non-work tasks on their company-issued devices or enable a security breach.
Fully remote companies, thus, have the most imperative to conduct remote network monitoring. This mandate extends to companies with extensive field-based operations, such as logistics companies.
Organizations with public touchpoints
There are many brands with static hardware. For example, an advertising network may have a device ecosystem of digital billboards and kiosks they lease out to advertisers, or a fintech may have point-of-sale devices to facilitate transactions.
These devices are not associated with employees on a one-to-one basis like company-issued devices are. Nonetheless, customer-facing touchpoints present their own set of risks. They may glitch. They may freeze. They may go offline. No matter the problem, the company cannot serve its customers if the devices cannot perform as intended.
As a result, remote network monitoring is crucial for these companies: It will allow them to track the status of their devices and, in turn, maximize their uptime and customer support.
2How remote network monitoring reimagines device management
Most organizations need to get technology for their device management. These companies currently rely on manual processes that are subject to numerous issues. Remote network monitoring represents a significant evolution from these workflows.
The status quo in device management
For companies that still do not practice remote network monitoring, there are three common approaches to device management.
- Field monitoring - In this approach, a company representative will travel from site to site, checking the status of different devices. This method is resource-intensive: Organizations squander travel time, worker salary, and gas for a process that should be much simpler. There is also room for significant gaps: An offline device may go undetected for a long time if its checkup schedule is later than the others. Overall, this strategy needs to be aligned: These companies use digital devices but rely on outdated workflows to track them.
- Self-reporting - Some companies may require field-based employees to report issues. For example, an advertising network may task salespeople and account managers to report issues with their kiosks and billboards. The problem with this strategy is that it assumes everyone cares equally. Some will call in a problem as soon as they see one. Others, however, will wait till it is convenient for them to do so or ignore the issue altogether. Any approach that relies on a given employee's work ethic or temperament is not sustainable: Companies are effectively gambling on whether their errant devices get reported.
- Blind luck - A handful of companies have no device management plan. Assuming that their devices will experience a few issues, they rely on the chance to discover their devices are not working. For example, one brand may learn that its digital kiosk is not working after a customer photographs the offline device, posts it to social media, and invites others to share their horror stories in dealing with the brand. This approach can lead to the most reputational damage. Customers and stakeholders will discover your hardware issues long before your organization does.
Why remote network monitoring is better for hardware
With remote network monitoring, organizations do not rely on field-based employees traveling from site to site or colleagues or customers to report issues. From the comfort of the office, an IT professional can monitor the status of devices through remote access, which saves precious time and money. They also have the same level of insight as a person standing next to the errant device would have. This approach multiplies an organization's reach: Instead of one-to-one device management, it is now one-to-many.
Upon detecting a problem, such as a glitch, the IT professional does not need to deploy a colleague to go on-site and fix it. Instead, they can assume control of the device, even if it is unattended. While this capability is technically a part of remote network management, it is essential for any solution in remote network monitoring. Now, IT professionals can correct device issues almost as soon as they arise.
How MDM Can Help in Remote Network Monitoring?
Device Connectivity History:Admins can view the managed device's network duration history and signal strength within 7 days and export reports.
Data Usage Report: Admins can view data usage trends for company devices, including Wi-Fi and cellular data, top 10 data-consuming apps, and data usage status.
Aletrs & Workflows: Admins can create an alert for daily or monthly cellular data usage and trigger workflows, such as switching to kiosk mode where only specific applications are allowed to be used.
Remote Ccontrol & Configurations: Admins can perform actions like remote network troubleshooting from a console, network configurations, Wi-Fi, network sharing (Hotspot, Bluetooth, VPN) can also be configured.
3Improves the management of remote and hybrid workers
When organizations shifted from on-site work to remote and hybrid configurations, they adopted new technologies.
Most solutions, however, were centered around communication, such as using Zoom for meetings or Slack for chatting. There was little thought on how the organization would monitor company-issued devices, leaving them stuck with outdated management practices.
The status quo in management
Companies that have rapidly shifted to remote or hybrid setups rely on old-school management practices. They use heuristics that only approximate their actual workload to gauge an employee's productivity.
For example, employees may attend meetings and submit their deliverables, but these are only signs.
The always-punctual employee may be binge-watching Netflix in between meetings. The employee may complete their deliverables in a rush so they can focus on surfing the net or even moonlighting for a second job or side hustle.
Relying on attendance, deliverables, and other heuristics for productivity is inaccurate: It does not give companies the complete picture of how an employee performs.
The worst part is that these heuristics do not allow for escalating steps. When employees arrive late, miss meetings, or fail to turn in their deliverables, companies must put them on a performance improvement plan (PIP) or even dismiss them.
A more nuanced approach to managing remote employees
Because remote networking monitoring gives companies insight into how devices are used, they can also learn how they are misused.
- Monitoring bandwidth for irregularities - The telltale sign of misuse is excessive bandwidth. An employee with data consumption that is unusually high compared to their colleagues may be streaming Netflix or working multiple jobs. Fortunately, with an MDM like AirDroid Business, IT teams can monitor data usage per device or app.
- Set up customizable alerts - Tracking phone use for a handful of employees might be possible, but this task quickly becomes difficult as the device number increases. The vast majority of companies will, therefore, want to set up automated alerts. These fully customizable alerts can send a message to the IT team when a specific condition is met. For example, a particular data threshold has been exceeded.
- Make an informed decision - When employers gather data through manual monitoring or customizable alerts, they can quickly determine whether the data usage is legitimate. Some employees may use the phone for data-intensive work, such as taking remote meetings in the field.
Others found culpable can be appropriately reprimanded with escalating punishments.
The first notice may be a warning that company-issued devices are for work purposes only. Subsequent notices may include everything from issuance of a PIP to suspension or even termination.
While dismissal remains a possibility for stubborn employees, remote network
monitoring enables organizations to take a more measured approach to correct problems long before they spiral out of control.
4Remote network monitoring can also help with lost or stolen devices
Remote and hybrid employees may also get careless. They may leave a company-issued device on a coffee shop table, where it can get stolen. They may misplace their device while on a work trip.
Companies not practicing remote network monitoring are out of luck when devices are lost or stolen. Even if the device is password protected, hackers could use a brute force attack to access the phone and its contents. The hacker may gain access to the organization's sensitive data.
Early intervention for lost or stolen devices
Once an employee reports a device as lost or stolen, the IT professional can track the device using the GPS function of the MDM. This feature is helpful. The IT professional may discover that the device is in a corner of the person's home, indicating that it was only misplaced.
If the device is in unfamiliar territory, the IT professional can take a photo of the person using it. This photo may be of the person who stole the device or purchased it from the person who did. Furthermore, the IT professional can lock down the device and activate password protection to ensure that the stranger does not gain access to the phone's content.
Last resort for lost or stolen devices
Even if the GPS function can track the stolen device, it may not always be recoverable. For example, the perpetrator may have flown overseas. In this case, the company may not find it worthwhile to attempt to track the phone or capture the perpetrator across borders.
The best option, in this case, is remote wipe or enable lost mode. Remote wipe restores the device to its factory settings, eliminating any sensitive data it may contain. Companies should only conduct a remote wipe for cases when the chances of retrieval are slim or not worth the effort.
>The future of remote monitoring in network management
Remote network monitoring is an absolute must for two types of organizations. The first is an organization with an ecosystem of customer-facing touchpoints, such as kiosks.
The traditional way of tracking these devices, such as field management, self-reporting, or even blind luck, creates too long of a lapse. Users will be unable to access errant devices, souring the customer experience.
By practicing remote network monitoring with an MDM, these organizations can monitor devices in real-time on a one-to-many basis. This ability gives IT professionals the bandwidth to access a glitching device and correct the issue remotely, even if it is unattended.
The second type of organization is those with hybrid or remote workforces. Employees may be prone to engage in non-work activities or moonlight for other companies in this work setup. Companies traditionally rely on heuristics like meeting attendance or work deliverables to approximate productivity, but these measures give only some of the picture.
A better way to manage remote and hybrid employees is with remote monitoring. Organizations can track bandwidth use on a per-device or app basis and set up automatic alerts based on specific data thresholds.
With these features, organizations can make more informed decisions about their employees, beginning by disregarding incidents of intensive data use that may be legitimate. Organizations can take employees who are guilty of abusing their devices through escalating punishments, so there are multiple opportunities to correct the behavior.
This granularity also applies to cases where an employee may get careless and lose their device or get it stolen. The company can track the missing device with GPS, take a photo of the person in its possession, and, as a last resort, wipe the device back to its original factory settings.
With a robust practice of remote monitoring in network management, businesses gain unprecedented insight into their mobile workforce so that they can be provided with the support needed for success.
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