This probably explains the popularity of MCM. But there might be another reason for it, the growth of remote work culture and BYOD. With the pandemic forcing people to work from home, the need for systems that can offer seamless operation remotely has grown. Using an MCM client can help businesses in difficult situations like that. And now, it’s not only a nice thing to have but a necessity. It can help secure your data and comply with regulatory policies as well and offers an excellent user experience while increasing employee productivity. Not to mention, some businesses already have incorporated the BYOD and remote work culture long before the pandemic. And tools like MCM software have worked out for them to streamline their work. In this article, we will uncover a few things about an MCM client and how it can help your business. We will also check out some of the MCM software so you can implement it in your organization and enjoy its benefits.
What Is MCM?
Mobile Content Management (MCM) refers to the type of content management system (CMS) that can store, manage, and deliver services and content to mobile devices like smartphones, personal digital assistants, and more. MCM systems can be a discrete systems or may exist as add-ons, features, or modules of larger CMSs capable of delivering content via multiple channels. MCM, also called mobile information management (MIM), is an essential part of mobile device management (MDM). It allows a user to access company assets like media documents, files, etc., on a mobile device. It also aims to balance employee productivity and data security by enabling various limitations and configurations. As a result, it helps safeguard company assets so that unauthorized users can’t access them.
What Is an MCM Client?
MCM client is an MCM agent deployed on mobile devices such as android phones to help users access media files and documents easily through a secure authentication method. It ensures that the files can only be accessed by authorized users/clients. MCM solutions deploy these agents on Android devices when they come under management. In addition to allowing secure viewing and accessing data, they also pose some restrictions to enable data security. They can also help mitigate malware from spreading because the MCM clients reduce the requirements for employees to install 3rd-party applications to access data (that can invite risks). You can install MCM clients on Android smartphones such as Samsung. Android agents are assigned to manage the smartphones with an MCM solution; that’s when MCM clients come into the picture. The agent allows authorized people to view, download, and share content while ensuring security.
Features of An MCM Client
The features of MCM clients are:
Access Controls
MCM client lets you control access to content via authentication, authorization, and proper access approval. It can also include control on time-specific data access, downloads, addition or removal of a user, and more. Plus, MCM clients must have some basic authentication systems such as passwords and user ID. They may also have advanced security measures for authentication like multifactor authentication.
Multi-Channel Content Delivery
An MCM client enables content delivery in multiple channels such as smartphones, tablets, etc. It also supports location-based data delivery to distribute content to a targeted location. You can distribute ads, informative content, directions, etc., to your targeted audience from a particular geographic area.
Supports Multiple File Formats
MCM clients can support various file formats. They allow users to store and access content in Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML, and more. In addition, it can support other formats like mp4, .txt, doc, .png, .jpg, .pptx, etc.
Adaptable Templates
Traditional CMSs generally offer templates suitable for some web browsers. However, MCM templates are highly adaptable to a variety of browsers and devices. Hence, it provides an excellent user experience.
Document Viewer
MCM clients have an in-built document viewer that supports different file types and lets you view your documents easily. Therefore, you don’t need to install any other third-party app for accessing the files that can involve security risks and inefficiencies. The in-built document viewer will be safer for your documents.
Document Segregation
MCM clients allow admins to segregate documents however they want. They can do it by tags, subjects, and other parameters. This makes content management streamlined and offers an easy way to find the content you want to access.
Secure Storage
MCM clients use secure and encrypted algorithms that enable you to store your content offline in a system. You can also enable a multifactor authentication system to add another layer of security for your data so no one else other than authorized users can access it. It not only makes your content secure but also creates an offline backup of the data. So, if anything goes wrong or your application gets crashed, you still have your data safely secured in an offline system that you can access easily.
Easy Collaboration
MCM clients help you collaborate on documents with your colleagues. You can give them access to view and modify any content you want so they can work on it in real-time. They can access the document any time, anywhere, and on any device they like to work with greater accessibility. In addition, admins can update the content quite easily by uploading the modified version to the server.
Why Do Businesses Need An MCM Client?
An MCM client offers a lot of benefits to businesses, especially when the remote work culture is flourishing. Here’s how they can help businesses of different scales.
Top-Notch Security 🛡️
Data security has become crucial these days with all the cyber crimes happening across the globe. MCM clients offer greater protection to all your content uploaded with measures like authentication, authorization, permission-based control, data encryption, and more. This ensures that only the authorized personnel can view and access your content and not others. It also makes sure that appropriate content is being uploaded by the right people. This way, you can deliver the right message to your audience with valuable information. In addition, this also lets you run your marketing and promotional campaigns effectively.
Global Targeting 🎯
Mobile clients come with capabilities such as global content delivery with higher uptime and performance. It lets you target your audience no matter where they are based. You can also deliver the right information, ads, and messages to your audience based on location, user preference, and online activity. As a result, it helps you expand your business across national and international borders to reach a larger audience with the help of MCM clients that enable you to manage your content effectively. You can also send your marketing messages that users can view on their mobile devices with greater accessibility and ease and pay more attention to them.
Consent-Based Content
With a proper mobile device and IP authentication, you can send content to only those recipients who have shown consent to receive your mobile content. This is important as some customers or users prefer receiving content on laptops or home computers only. In that case, you can deliver what your users expect from you and respect their preferences. It’s proof that you care about your audience, and they are going to appreciate it.
Greater Flexibility
MCM clients offer flexibility to users as they can view content on any mobile device of their preference. It also supports a variety of file formats so they can choose the one they are most comfortable with. In addition, MCM clients can display content on different devices differently. It works well across devices of varying screen sizes and fits the content perfectly. This way, users can have enhanced experience reading your content and are more likely to be interested in your offerings. Moreover, MCM clients also offer portability, which again increases user convenience.
Supports Social Media
MCM clients help you keep your expenditure limited by allowing you to promote your content via social media. It saves a lot of expenses as you don’t necessarily need to choose a costly marketing method. It’s especially beneficial for start-ups and small businesses with limited budgets.
Facilitates Remote Work
Even before this pandemic, organizations were into the remote work culture. But after the pandemic hit us, more and more organizations have adopted remote culture across the world. And it was the only method through which they could run their business during this challenging time. So, using an MCM client can prove to be a lot more useful to deliver content via mobile devices to users. It also allows you and your employees to work from anywhere without necessarily coming to the office. Thus, it’s a boon in the age of remote work.
BYOD Culture
MCM client is also necessary for BYOD culture. It’s because when employees bring their own devices to work, you never know how vulnerable they are in terms of security and data privacy. And if they are not secure, it could provide an entry point for harmful security issues like malware, viruses, etc. As a result, they can potentially leak your data, invite cybercrimes, and pose compliance penalties as well. These are enough to wreck a business financially and reputation-wise. However, if you use an MCM client, these issues can be minimized or prevented. Your employees can install an MCM client on their devices and work with files with greater security and privacy.
Effective Data Management
Using MCM clients enables effective data management. It forms an important part of mobile device management (MDM) that aims to manage files and important documents security and properly on mobile devices. You can store, access, and work with content with security and convenience by using MCM clients. As a result, it boosts employee productivity and your content marketing efforts.
How to Choose A Good MCM Provider?
Businesses of different sizes can use MCM clients to manage their content efficiently and with security. But they may have different needs and limitations. That’s why it’s important to choose an MCM client based on their requirements. Here are some of the pointers you can consider before choosing an MCM provider.
Content Availability
If you want to deliver a superb user experience, your MCM client must offer easy accessibility to the content they need. It must ensure higher content availability all the time. This means you must always inquire about uptime to deliver content to your users successfully across different devices and geographical locations.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Users expect a consistent experience from you, be it accessing your content or taking up your services. Therefore, you need to ensure the MCM client you choose must support multiple devices, web browsers, and operating systems. It will make it easier for them to access your content in their preferred way. This is how you can attract more customers and ensure one category of users is not left out.
Security 🔐
Security is indeed crucial whenever you choose a device, application, or system. You need to ensure the MCM client you select offers a high level of protection to your content and other organizational data. S0, inspect what sort of security measures they offer in their services so that you can protect your data. It will also help you ensure that your users’ data remains safe in order to uphold their trust, maintain compliance, and reduce the risk of getting penalized. For this, check the authentication, authorization, and other security features they offer and how secure they are.
File-Sharing 📁
File sharing is an important aspect when it comes to collaboration. So, if you want to ensure smooth collaboration between your employees, you need to have a system that can enable secure file sharing. Go for an MCM client that can offer the option to enable or disable the file-sharing options whenever you want. It helps you prevent malicious attempts done by certain sites that may share your data or compromise its security. Hence, always inspect the file-sharing options and their security before you choose an MCM client. So, if you are looking for efficient MCM software, here are some of the providers you can consider.
ManageEngine
ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus (ME MDM Plus) is a complete MDM solution that can empower your business and give you the power of mobility. It helps enhance your employee productivity but never compromises security. ME MDM Plus allows you to manage the content on your smartphones, laptops, tablets, TVs, desktops, and other rugged devices. It supports operating systems, including Android, Windows, Chrome OS, iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and tvOS.
Use the tool to manage and distribute documents on mobile devices with a few clicks. It lets the authorized users view, access, and save documents securely using the trusted application on mobile devices. In addition, documents distributed once to the devices are updated automatically when the new versions become available. Furthermore, you can restrict third-party applications from accessing your distributed documents and backing them up in the cloud. ME MDM Plus supports 10+ document formats that you can manage and distribute. Additionally, it lets you separate your personal and corporate data on each device, which helps maintain data integrity and never allows anyone to compromise its security. ME MDM Plus offers two types of services – cloud and on-premise. You can go for any one of them and choose a FREE trial. Regarding the pricing plans, they have three editions – free, standard, and professional. Choose the one that’s best suitable for your needs.
Mobileiron
Managing your mobile data securely with Mobileiron can offer a lot of benefits to your business. It allows your employees to be productive no matter where they work so that they can access and view content anytime with security. Mobileiron can protect your confidential business data from supporting the modern work culture without decelerating your productivity. It implies that your employees can seamlessly access data and collaborate with the workflow across any device and network without interrupting your workflow.
Moreover, you can protect access to your EFSS systems through a safe mobile data repository that can encrypt data locally. It can also support document editing and annotation, securely connect to back-end storage, and offer deeper IT visibility into data stored over mobile devices. You can authorize access to cloud and on-premise EFSS systems such as Office 365, Box, and Sharepoint. You can also enable mobile data security controls and policies to mitigate unauthorized data sharing. Mobileiron allows IT to wipe data remotely if a device fails to comply with security requirements. In addition, it lets you leverage FIPS 140-2 encryption that helps protect your content on mobile devices. You can also use a console to enforce and configure data loss prevention (DLP) policies like copy-paste and open-in restrictions.
Conclusion
With increasing cybercrimes, BYOD policies, and remote culture, there is a need to manage your data effectively and secure it. Using an MCM client can help you with just that. It can also help increase our employee productivity and ensure your remote work goes smoothly with security and compliance.
