Security, Compliance, and Identity Blog
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Summertime EMS Successes
Brad Anderson
Sep 08, 2018Iron Contributor
First published on CloudBlogs on Jul 09, 2015
In recent weeks the ongoing surge of EMS success stories has continued to grow. I’ve written about this before , and today there are six more quick stories I want to highlight because of how their stories apply to so many of the regular readers of this blog. With each of these stories, I think you’ll recognize the decision making process these organizations went through, as well as the familiar solutions they required. In each case, these organizations became dramatically more efficient, their infrastructure was simplified, and their end users became immediately more productive and more secure. If you want to see real-world examples of the Microsoft advantage – this is a post worth sharing. Also, for a deep dive into the breadth our Enterprise Mobility solutions, check out the Success with Enterprise Mobility blog series.
In recent weeks the ongoing surge of EMS success stories has continued to grow. I’ve written about this before , and today there are six more quick stories I want to highlight because of how their stories apply to so many of the regular readers of this blog. With each of these stories, I think you’ll recognize the decision making process these organizations went through, as well as the familiar solutions they required. In each case, these organizations became dramatically more efficient, their infrastructure was simplified, and their end users became immediately more productive and more secure. If you want to see real-world examples of the Microsoft advantage – this is a post worth sharing. Also, for a deep dive into the breadth our Enterprise Mobility solutions, check out the Success with Enterprise Mobility blog series.
ABM
ABM is one of the largest facility solution providers ( e.g. janitorial, maintenance, etc.) in the United States with more than 300 offices. ABM’s IT department worked with the business to enable enterprise mobility and anywhere/anytime productivity for their mobile workforce . That mobile workforce is almost always away from the office at customer locations like universities, hospitals, and airports. To empower this workforce, ABM deployed Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) to 12,000 users and their devices. From the case study:“The Enterprise Mobility Suite is symbiotic with Office 365 in terms of benefits,” says Andre Garcia, AVP, Global Infrastructure Services at ABM. “With Office 365, we provide the cloud services for employees to be more mobile and productive; with the Enterprise Mobility Suite, IT gets another set of cloud services to protect and manage users, devices, and data. We will use the Enterprise Mobility Suite to help our increasingly mobile workforce access and share data in a secure fashion on up-to-date devices, so they can work more productively and improve service.” “Managing identity is the first step toward empowering mobility,” says Garcia. “We use the tools in the Enterprise Mobility Suite for an enhanced level of end-user management and self-service capabilities and for multifactor authentication—and now IT can validate that devices connecting to the network are owned and controlled by individuals with the appropriate credentials.”The scenarios noted here by Andre (who was previously a guest on The Endpoint Zone ) are actually the two most common scenarios that I see among organizations who choose to deploy EMS:
- The need to secure and protect the data that’s being used and accessed in the Office mobile apps.
- The rapidly growing importance of the strong identity management capabilities in EMS. In the ABM case study you’ll see a lot of detail about how ABM uses EMS for multi-factor authentication, self-service password reset, single sign-on for SaaS apps and managing all the mobile devices being used by their employees.
St. Luke’s Health System
St. Luke’s Health System is a nationally recognized nonprofit healthcare system. Like many other healthcare organizations, St. Luke’s needed to migrate from multiple electronic medical record systems (a total of 35) to one solution from a partner, Epic. As a part of this transition, St. Luke’s has a vision for its 3,000 clinicians: It wants to deliver a high standard of care across multiple devices. This is where O365 and the EMS came into play. O365 and EMS will enable secure access to the Epic solution and other IT-approved apps from anywhere and on any device. This means better patient care and more efficient management. From the case study:“At St. Luke’s, we have many different versions of mobility,” says Brett Taylor, Information Technology Director at St. Luke’s Health System. “We were impressed by the level of investments Microsoft is making in its datacenters and by the rapid release cycle of new capabilities in the suite, such as the ability to use data loss protection for content in Microsoft SharePoint Online sites and Microsoft OneDrive for Business,” says Taylor. “The Enterprise Mobility Suite helps us answer our security requirements.” St. Luke’s clinicians want to access patient records from home and to provide better patient care outside of office hours, such as diagnosing an on-site concussion at a school football game, for example. To support that anywhere access, the health system needs to trust that each clinician’s identity is accurate and device is secured. Using the multifactor authentication capabilities and conditional access controls within the Enterprise Mobility Suite will deliver that trust.Two things really stand out from St. Luke’s story:
- Notice the general movement in the healthcare industry towards Epic – and notice how EMS helps to secure that Epic data.
- I’m consistently impressed by the speed of the release cadence for new functionality within EMS. This speed is a huge advantage for EMS customers.
Japan Business Systems
Japan Business Systems (JBS) is an independent systems integrator that specializes in information infrastructure, application development, system maintenance, and system operations. Like many systems integrators, more than half of their employees (1,200 total) work at remote customer sites and they face complex security constraints when moving between customers. JBS is an awesome example of how the Enterprise Cloud Suite (ECS) dramatically simplifies the licensing required for organizations that need to make their users productive whenever, wherever, and on whatever devices they want to use. The beauty of ECS is the way it provides a per-user license for O365, EMS, and Windows Software Assurance at very attractive prices. You can read more about how ECS works here . ECS is a very proactive response to the feedback Microsoft has received by the ton over the years about the complexity of our licensing. We have worked very hard to make ECS as simple as possible: It’s a per- user license (aka don’t worry about counting devices), it’s a simple upgrade from your Platform EA, and it’s a great price. To read the Japan Business Systems story in depth, check out their case study here .SoftBank Technology
SoftBank Technology was an early adopter of Office 365 back in 2011, and, at the time, they were using another EMM solution. Soon after evaluating EMS in July 2014, and then after testing out a pilot in February 2015, they migrated from their existing EMM solution and completed their implementation of EMS across their company this April. Now they manage their 1,200 mobile devices from the cloud, and they are looking to run SCCM and Intune together for a single solution that manages everything – PC’s and mobile devices. From the case study:Toshiro Mine, Senior Manager, estimates that about 20 percent of the work normally required for mobile device management is expected to be reduced. He concludes, “Taking into account the integration capabilities with existing systems and the synergistic effects with our in-house solution, EMS is the most appropriate solution for our future business development.”SoftBank’s story features two very common scenarios I see on a regular basis:
- I am told by a lot of organizations using alternative EMM solutions that they are unhappy with the offering – especially the productivity apps from these vendors. They all want the rich Office experience.
- These organizations want that single pane of glass to manage PC’s and mobile devices. The reality is that the other EMM vendors are super weak in PC management. SCCM and Intune deliver great PC and mobile device management.
Willemen Groep
Willemen Groep is a Belgian construction company that emphasizes completing projects on-time and on-budget. They turned to O365 and the EMS to make their users more productive while securing and protecting company data. From the case study:“Employees use Office 365 to access and share updated project plans, equipment deliveries, and contracts,” says Kris Mampaey, Director of IT at Willemen Groep. “And employees are using our mobile apps to accomplish business tasks on the go. However, to enable these mobile work scenarios, we needed better identity and access management for SaaS [Software as a Service] resources, and we needed to secure and manage the mobile devices and smartphones used outside the corporate network—as well as the data they contain. The Enterprise Mobility Suite delivers these capabilities in one, cost-effective package.” “Thanks to the Enterprise Mobility Suite, we can confidently deploy mobile apps that deliver business value. The Invoice app streamlines our three-person sequential invoice approval process. Using the app on their mobile devices, approvers can make a quick decision anytime and anywhere. We are reducing payment cycles from 60 to 30 days, which puts us in a position to negotiate discounts with suppliers.”I love learning how the work we are doing is enabling organizations to re-imagine their business processes and drive efficiencies! I want to know how can we help you! To read the whole Willemen Groep story, check out their case study here .
Mitchell Shire
Mitchell Shire is a 1,780 square mile (2,864 km) in Australia’s Goulburn River Valley . The 470 employees of the Mitchell Shire Council (over half of whom are mobile) are responsible for government services and facilities like parks, healthcare, senior/disability programs, sports/recreation spaces, and the infrastructure for the approximately 40,000 citizens. The Council leaders needed to better empower their employees to efficiently deliver these services while keeping the local government’s sensitive data secure. Mitchell Shire was one of the first councils in Australia to subscribe to O365 – they were particularly interested in the 1 terabyte of document storage per user, the videoconferencing features, as well as the native instant messaging and collaboration tools. Mitchell Shire is now taking full advantage of the EMS. From the case study:“The Enterprise Mobility Suite provides the tools we need to configure, secure, and manage mobile devices as well as protect data,” says Clint Zikesch, Chief Technology Officer at Mitchell Shire Council. “It’s absolutely key to achieving our mobility strategy.” Before choosing the Enterprise Mobility Suite, Council evaluated other options, but none of them offered more flexible, multiplatform management capabilities. Council also liked that Microsoft Intune works with the organization’s existing PC management solution, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, a component of System Center 2012. “Having one user interface to cover all computing devices is a huge advantage, reducing the workload for IT staff,” says Zikesch. Read about how they are using EMS to comply with the records management legislations as well as using the EMS multi-factor capabilities to ensure security of that data.To read the whole Mitchell Shire story, check out their case study here .
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I have written a fair amount about how PC management, mobile device management, identity management, and productivity are converging . I hope that as you read through these customer examples this convergence really stood out. This convergence is real and it is happening quickly . As you define and refine your Enterprise Mobility strategy, you must take this convergence into consideration . You may have deployed point solutions 1-2 years ago to address specific needs – but the future is going to depend upon a single, unified approach . Right now is the time to really consider what your all-up strategy should be going forward, as well as how you will move from point products that are not integrated (and, frankly, cannot be integrated) to an integrated Office 365 + EMS solution . Office 365 + EMS will make your users more productive, they will love the experience many times more than the point solutions you may be using now, your data will be more secure, and you will be the HERO for delivering this to them!Published Sep 08, 2018
Version 1.0Brad Anderson
Iron Contributor
Joined September 06, 2018
Security, Compliance, and Identity Blog
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