“Put simply, Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is dead and focus has shifted towards a unified IoT solution.”
Those were the words of SOTI CEO Carl Rodrigues in an interview with Enterprise Mobility Exchange’s Jason Koestenblatt in which the two discussed mobile transformation, IoT, and what’s next for EMM and MDM.
Rodrigues continued: “EMM will remain a fundamental element of that solution but the market is at a critical inflection point.” As MDM needs continue to grow, Rodrigues says, a major shift is in progress “from traditional EMM towards unified endpoint management (UEM).” UEM, he says, is necessary because there are now so many different device types beyond just smartphones and tablets–which EMM just isn’t equipped to handle.
Now, you might recall that earlier this year, we were discussing whether or not MAM was dead. (It isn’t.) To that end, you may be surprised to hear us asking whether or not EMM is dead. Our argument in our MAM blog was that, even though MAM is commoditized in many ways, there are still plenty of companies out there that need a simple MAM deployment to accommodate their needs.
In considering the apparent death of EMM, our line of thinking is much the same. Certainly, mobile transformation is constant. You also won’t hear us arguing with some of Rodrigues’ other points, such as how the enterprise device landscape is growing more complex, and how certain industries (manufacturing, healthcare, etc.) are more ripe for mobility transformation than others.
On the EMM front, however, we just have to disagree with Rodrigues’ core premise that EMM is dead. Yes, the landscape is growing more complex, and yes, forward-thinking companies are renewing their focus on IoT to reinvent their business, but that hardly means that it’s hard to find success with EMM.
Could companies that rely solely on EMM be “missing out on an array of functionality and possibilities”? Maybe. But there are just as many businesses out there with needs that aren’t as complex, or perhaps that needn’t rely as much on the growing network of IoT-connected devices. Better still, it’s possible to deploy an EMM solution while still being attentive to IoT and other emerging trends.
The key takeaway for us is that even though EMM might not cover all the mobility needs of a modern enterprise, it still does a pretty good job covering the bases in the right situation. To that end, we’re not ready to declare just yet that EMM is dead.
What do you think? Is EMM dead, left in the dust for more comprehensive solutions? Or will it continue to stick around and evolve? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
