Update: Retirement Systems of Alabama Goes BYOD with MobileIron

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- When Retirement Systems of Alabama decided to implement a Mobile IT platform in order to roll out a broad Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, the government organization chose MobileIron, the leader in security and management for mobile apps, documents, and devices.

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Retirement Systems of Alabama manages public pension funds for state and local employees, and public education employees in the state of Alabama. The safekeepers of the pensions for thousands of Alabamians, the organization's mission is to serve the interests of members by preserving the excellent benefits and soundness of the Systems at the least expense to the state of Alabama and all Alabama taxpayers.

From ActiveSync to MobileIron
Retirement Systems of Alabama traditionally rolled out smartphones to those employees who had a legitimate business need to have remote access to data and some internal applications.  Over time the organization moved away from that approach. There were more and more requests from employees to connect their personal devices to the network and not carry two devices. The organization was able to accommodate some requests using ActiveSync but knew that it was not sustainable for the long term.

"We were in this grey area in some cases where we just didn't know what our options were from a legal or security standpoint but we knew we were required to know where all of our data was going and that it was secure at all times," said Chris Betzler, Systems Administrator, Retirement Systems of Alabama. "We started doing research and when we found that MobileIron worked with our application gateway product. That closed the deal for us."

Working with the MobileIron Customer Success Team
Working with MobileIron's Customer Success team, the Retirement Systems of Alabama was able to get up and running fast. "It was no problem for me to install the appliances but it would have taken me a week to configure it by myself," said Betzler. "Working with MobileIron, we knocked it out in half a day." 

Security Team and Employees are Both Happy
The security team appreciated that both IT and the employee could now track missing phones using the Find My Phone feature and that IT could do either a full wipe of all the data on a lost or stolen device or a selective wipe of just the agency's information. Equally important is that employees are happy which in turn encourages productivity. Employees, a number of whom preferred Android devices, appreciate that they can now use the device of their choice.

"It's a really simple process to get your device connected," Betzler continued. "Once the Mobile Iron application is installed on the smartphone, it pretty much just runs in the background without any impact on the device. From the Mobile IT perspective, anytime a user is happy it makes my job that much easier. MobileIron makes it so easy that we can focus on all the other things we need to manage knowing that our users are happy and our data is secure."

About MobileIron
The leader in security and management for mobile apps, documents, and devices, MobileIron's mission is to enable global companies to become Mobile First organizations, embracing mobility as their primary IT platform in order to transform their businesses and increase their competitiveness. Recognized by IDC as the fastest growing mobile enterprise management vendor in the world, MobileIron provides the scalable architecture, rapid innovation, and best practices for global companies to transform into Mobile First organizations. Leading global companies use MobileIron as the foundation for their Mobile First initiatives, including 7 of the 10 top pharmaceutical companies, 5 of the 10 top banks, 8 of the 10 top automotive manufacturers, 3 of the 5 top retailers, 4 of the 5 top aerospace and defense companies, and half of the 10 top law firms. For more information, please visit www.mobileiron.com.

SOURCE MobileIron