Originally posted by Doug Drinkwater, TabTimes

The increasing number of smartphones and tablets in the workplace will push 25% of enterprises to adopt their own app store by 2017, according to Gartner.

In a new study, the research firm says that enterprises will increasingly turn to these app stores to control the apps their employees are using, especially with the bring-your-own-app (BYOA) trend now deemed to be “as important” as bring-your-own-device (BYOD).

A friend of mine was responsible for creating the BYOD pilot program for a Fortune 10, $50B healthcare company. In the process he learned several important and surprising lessons, which he has kindly passed along in blog form.

One lesson he learned is that the biggest cost in developing a large corporate BYOD policy rollout may not be directly related to technology or devices at all. In many cases, it’s the tab for lawyers and HR staffers to review proposed policies, and to develop the lengthy contracts employees ultimately need to sign to use their personal devices on the corporate network.

Mobile Device Management is no picnic. Just ask anybody who’s doing it – or trying to.

On the surface of things, MDM doesn’t seem so tough. All you have to do is read the website of any major MDM vendor, and they’ll explain that they have the whole problem handled. Just buy their solution, and “problem solved.” But you don’t have look very hard to start finding chinks in the armor.

Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management Software Report is prefaced with the assertion that “MDM features have commoditized with little differentiation,” indicating that most offer the same strengths – and weaknesses. Perhaps the biggest limitation on MDM as a category is that the ability to actual manage devices is highly dependent on the mobile operating system each device is running – and all mobile OSes are not created equal in terms of their ability to be managed.

Originally Posted by Lane Jesseph, Tablets at Work Blog

When modern workers move from smartphone to desk phone to IM to email to conferencing—and from desktop to laptop to tablet and back to smartphone again—the conversation can get a bit muddled. But since each medium offers unique capabilities and strengths, none is likely to disappear in the short term. And the BYOD trend—whether contained, discouraged, or cultivated in your organization—surely adds more complexity.

That’s why more enterprises are pursuing unified communication strategies and solutions—ones that can help today’s mobile workers take advantage of all the communication tools available so conversations are enhanced, not fragmented.

Microsoft Lync is one such solution drawing increasing attention from enterprises determined to leverage diverse communication types, not restrict them. Why is this relevant now?

To control financial and human resources and reduce costs, most government agencies have standardization policies for desktop environments. Agencies routinely let their employees choose from a number of standard desktop hardware and software configurations.

In both the private and public sector, laptops, tablets and smartphones are well on their way to becoming indispensible productivity tools. As governments move toward the inevitable adoption of mobile end user devices, broadening existing standardization policies can bring many benefits to the mobile environment.

The use of mobile devices on public sector networks is top of mind for most government agency and IT leaders. You can be sure that some form of mobile endpoint device is coming soon to the public sector—in spite of the security risks that keep agency IT leaders awake at night.

Don’t let security challenges derail your mobility plans, says U.S. CIO Steve VanRoekel, who warns IT leaders against making a “false choice between security and innovation.”

Indeed, federal mobility initiatives such as VanRoekel’s federal mobility strategy, General Services Administration’s (GSA) strategic sourcing plan for mobility initiatives and National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST) security guidelines for tablets and mobile phones will pave the way—and set the expectation—for state and local governments to securely use mobile devices while meeting their organizational objectives.

It’s 1:00 a.m.—do you know where your employees’ mobile devices are? Is your company data secure against loss or theft?

Most enterprise IT professionals are under enormous pressure to develop a comprehensive approach to mobility that promotes productivity while still protecting the organization from security, legal, and compliance risks. A key part of that strategy involves protecting your devices and the data files that live on them. This is especially important for organizations exploring a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy.

As you consider how to keep your workforce (and yourself) productive, consider these six best practices:

As the number of devices and operating systems available to your mobile workforce increases, mobile device management (MDM) is becoming more and more complex. IT managers are under pressure to provide ubiquitous access to corporate information, while keeping that information secure across a broad spectrum of mobile devices and platforms.

For the majority of IT leaders, this is very difficult to do without external help. Enterprise organizations may benefit from a comprehensive, third-party management service that ensures data security and gives every out-of-office worker a singular user experience—whether they’re connecting with a tablet, a laptop, a smartphone, or any other mobile device.