Mobile Content Management (MCM)

What is Mobile Content Management (MCM)?

Mobile Content Management (MCM) is a type of software that enables content to be easily and securely shared from any device in a specific enterprise. With more and more employees bringing mobile devices into the workplace for business use, it is important for businesses to be able to manage the content that appears on those devices to ensure that company information is uniform and that it remains secure. MCM allows employees to view necessary content on any device that they choose to use and from any location. MCM means that the entire company will have the same access to content on their mobile devices. MCM also allows the system’s administrator in any given workplace to easily share files to all mobile devices on the network. Furthermore, MCM allows employees to easily send and share content from their mobile devices, either within the network or to clients outside of the network. MCM also provides security for the content on mobile devices. Overall, MCM simplifies the way that content is shared and accessed in the workplace. With a wide range of mobile devices on the market that all come with different operating systems, security settings, and capabilities, it is very important for companies to be able to create a sense of uniformity between their employees’ devices as they are used in a business context.

Employees stay productive wherever they work with secure, anytime access to essential business content. With secure mobile content management (MCM) software, IT can protect confidential business information across the mobile workforce without slowing down business productivity. That means employees can access critical business content and collaborate seamlessly across any network, on any mobile device, without security prompts interrupting their workflow.

A well-designed mobile content management strategy enables employees to securely access mission-critical enterprise data and collaborate with other employees across any network or mobile device without being slowed down or restricted from data they need access to for their work function. As a result, solutions from mobile content management seek to provide the ideal balance between worker productivity and business content-related mobile security. MCM enables employees to efficiently access their work documents, spreadsheets, emails, schedules, presentations, and other enterprise data while working remotely while also ensuring the security of the enterprise's data residing on the mobile device or transmitted across networks. MCM differs from other mobile security initiatives in that it focuses specifically on data and in many cases collaboration on data among co-workers, rather than on the devices or applications that utilize the data. Mobile Content Management involves the encryption of sensitive data and ensuring that only authorized applications can access, transmit or store this data using strong password protection.

source: Webopedia

Key Functional Capabilities of Mobile Content Management (MCM)

Mobile Content Management delivers the following key capabilities.

• Create content distribution profiles
• Distribute and collaborate on corporate data with authentication
• Remotely update and erase password-protected content
• Prevent data leakage with Data Leakage Protection (DLP)
• Allocate role-based admin rights for device group content management
• Containerize data with password protection

Mobile Content Management works best when integrated into an MDM solution

Mobile Content Management System (MCMS)

Mobile content management system (MCMS) refers to a category of content management systems (CMS) that has the ability to both deliver and store content and services to a wide variety of mobile devices, which includes smartphones, mobile phones, PDAs, and tablets. An MCMS can either be an individualized system or a part of a greater CMS and exist in the form of an add-on, module, or feature. Because mobile devices are rapidly growing in widespread use and have become much more complex, the demand for the management of mobile content has risen greatly. The delivery of mobile content faces unique hindrances that include weaker processors, smaller screen sizes, less wireless bandwidth, and decreased capacity for storage in comparison to desktop computers. With an MCMS, a company can much more easily manage content on a wide range of mobile devices. An MCMS consists of four major features. First, the MCMS can perform multi-channel content delivery. This means that all data is stored in raw format on a central server and can be delivered to all types of mobile devices in various formats that are compatible with each individual device. Second, an MCMS incorporates content access control. This means that services such as authentication, authorization, and access approval exist for all content. Third, an MCMS allows for a specialized templating system. This means that a website can either be seen in all versions at one domain name (the multi-client approach) or at a targeted sub-domain name for the mobile site (the multi-site approach). Fourth, an MCMS allows for location-based content delivery, which enables the use of targeted content delivery based on location.

Key features of Mobile Content Management System (MCMS)

• Multi-channel content delivery: Multi-channel content delivery capabilities allow users to manage a central content repository while simultaneously delivering that content to mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Content can be stored in a raw format (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Text, HTML, etc.) to which device-specific presentation styles can be applied.
• Content access control: Access control includes authorization, authentication, and access approval to each content. In many cases, the access control also includes download control, wipe-out for a specific user, time specific access. For the authentication, MCM shall have basic authentication which has a user ID and password. For higher security, many MCM support IP authentication and mobile device authentication.
• Specialized templating system: While traditional web content management systems handle templates for only a handful of web browsers, mobile CMS templates must be adapted to a very wide range of target devices with different capacities and limitations. There are two approaches to adapting templates: multi-client and multi-site. The multi-client approach makes it possible to see all versions of a site at the same domain (e.g. sitename.com), and templates are presented based on the device client used for viewing. The multi-site approach displays the mobile site on a targeted sub-domain (e.g. mobile.sitename.com).
• Location-based content delivery: Location-based content delivery provides targeted content, such as information, advertisements, maps, directions, and news, to mobile devices based on the current physical location. Currently, GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems offer the most popular location-based services. Navigation systems are specialized systems, but incorporating mobile phone functionality makes greater exploitation of location-aware content delivery possible.

Choosing the right MCM provider

It's imperative that businesses, small and large, incorporate Mobile Content Management (MCM) strategies into their greater management plan. Successful MCM providers ensure flexibility and security to end-users, without compromising productivity. The following features should be considered when choosing the right MCM provider for your environment.

• Cross-platform: With the popularity of BYOD and CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) environments, device operating systems will vary. Technology changes so rapidly that it’s difficult to predict its direction in the future. By choosing an MCM provider that works across both iOS and Android platforms you ensure a technology solution will stand the test of time.
• Content Availability: In order to be the most efficient and productive, end-users must have access to the apps and the content they need, when they need it. FileWave allows for on-demand content available in an end-user kiosk or automatically delivered to a specific location on a device.
• File Sharing: Collaboration between colleagues is often a necessity, and good MCM providers can enable and disable file-sharing options. When an MCM provider has this option it cuts back on the usage of “shadow IT” file-share sites and services that may compromise the security of data.
• Security: As with all corporate and personal data, security is key. Good MCM software should support the enabling and monitoring of OS-based encryption in order to protect confidential information while allowing for a flexible, mobile work environment.

Mobile Content Management (MCM): Challenges

• Business Challenges: The mobility management market has grown in recent years as more than half of the workers are currently using their personal devices for work these days. This percentage is expected to grow to nearly 100 percent over the next few years. Over 130 vendors have entered the market to provide mobile device management solutions, while another sizeable number are in the process of introducing mobile application management solutions that address application-level security and policy controls. While these management solutions address challenges specific to device and mobile applications, one problem still remains.
• Employee productivity is dependent on their ability to access and share work-related content across multiple content repositories including their own network file systems, cloud-based repositories, and enterprise storage solutions. The challenges include:
  • Employee productivity challenges occur when there’s a lack of seamless and unified access to all content needed for individual work and collaboration.
  • Compliance challenges can result from improper IT compliance, which in many cases is based on industry regulation, to help ensure that the content being accessed and shared is secure at all times—both at rest as well in motion.

Advantages of Mobile Content Management (MCM)

• Most organizations are concerned with security. Managing mobile content today means making it more secure for users and companies who rely on users to upload the right content, at the right time. Authorization, authentication, and access approval are measures used to ensure mobile content is uploaded by the appropriate sources. These measures help the organization maintain security in marketing and promotions, to ensure the right message is delivered to the right audiences.
• IP authentication and mobile device authentication allow content to be sent only to those recipients who permit mobile content. This is an added bonus, as some users would rather receive content via their home computers or laptops.
• Mobile content management allows marketing and promotional messages to be viewed by larger audiences. When those with mobile devices are able to fully view the message, they are more likely to pay attention and view the message as important. With so many people using mobile devices, it is important for companies to deliver content that can reach a larger audience.
• Mobile content management offers several security measures. At the same time, it offers some flexibility in how content is displayed. Various mobile devices will display content differently, depending on screen size and the options for content display. Content management allows the user to consider the various formatting options, that will allow recipients to read the content and message effectively. There is nothing worse than sending a promotion message to recipients who are unable to view the entire message. Formatting options allow the sender to consider the various devices the audience may use.
• Flexibility and portability are some of the most beneficial features of mobile content management. In many instances, users who upload content can also use their mobile devices to send the appropriate messages to their audiences. Marketing teams can work away from the office or desk and can be more productive when they are able to manage and send marketing messages via mobile devices.
• Mobile content management helps the organization stay within the budget. Content sent via mobile devices and to mobile devices can make use of social media, which is a cost-effective way of advertising. Marketing and advertising costs are an issue for most organizations. Every company’s marketing department must work within a budget.

See Also

Mobile Application

Further Reading

• What is MCM? A primer on mobile content management
• Mobile Content Management: Top 10 Considerations
• Mobile Content Management: Keeping Important Information Accessible and Secure
• An Alternative Approach to Mobile Content Management: Moving Beyond the Limitations of EMM and ECM Platforms
• Where Does Mobile Content Management Fit in EMM?
• Four stages to conquer mobile content management
• Beyond dollars, cents for a business case for mobile content management