Data Science in Engineering and Management

Applications, New Developments, and Future Trends

Zdzislaw Polkowski, Sambit Kumar Mishra, Julian Vasilev, Zdzislaw Polkowski, Sambit Kumar Mishra, Julian Vasilev

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000520842
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Operations
• Index: Business

This book brings insight into data science and offers applications and implementation strategies. It includes current developments and future directions and covers the concept of data science along with its origins. It focuses on the mechanisms of extracting data along with classifications, architectural concepts, and business intelligence with predictive analysis.

Data Science in Engineering and Management: Applications, New Developments, and Future Trends introduces the concept of data science, its use, and its origins, as well as presenting recent trends, highlighting future developments; discussing problems and offering solutions. It provides an overview of applications on data linked to engineering and management perspectives and also covers how data scientists, analysts, and program managers who are interested in productivity and improving their business can do so by incorporating a data science workflow effectively.

This book is useful to researchers involved in data science and can be a reference for future research. It is also suitable as supporting material for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in related engineering disciplines.

1 Concepts for Effective Mobile Device Management in an Enterprise Environment

Iskren Lyubomilov Tairov

Email: [email protected]

DOI: 10.1201/9781003216278-1

1. 1.1 Introduction
2. 1.2 Review of the Literature
3. 1.3 Problem Statement
4. 1.4 Methodology
5. 1.5 Experimental Analysis
6. 1.6 Results Obtained from Experimentation
7. 1.7 Discussion and Future Directions
8. 1.8 Conclusion
9. References

1.1 Introduction

The accelerated development of information technologies (IT) provides serious opportunities for increasing business efficiency. Information mobility is among the leading trends in the field of IT; it significantly improves productivity and efficiency and puts companies into transition. At present, mobile devices have an impressive computing power, they are produced in large quantities, and their popularity is growing significantly faster in all user categories, which leads to their increased importance. They are mainly used for entertainment and personal communication, but in recent years the focus has been set on their key role in achieving business goals by improving the quality of business activities, as well as of people’s routine tasks.

By the beginning of 2019, the global forecast was that over 67% or 4.68 billion of the world’s population would own and use a mobile phone or smartphone by the end of 2019 (Statista Research Department, 2016).

In a current study as of November 2020, 5.23 billion people own a mobile device; 3.5 billion of these devices are smartphones and 4.78 billion are mobile phones (Statista, 2020) (Figure 1.1). This means that 66.79% of the world’s population has a mobile device, making over 10.8 billion mobile connections.

Figure 1.1Smartphone users worldwide. (Adapted from Statista, 2020.)

By region, the most smartphone users are in Asia and the Pacific followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa and North and Latin America (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2Smartphone users by region by the year 2020. (Adapted from Chaffey, 2020.)

In detail, China has the most smartphone users, followed by India and the United States (Metev, 2020). The ranking for the top ten countries with the most smartphone users is given in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Top Ten Countries with Regard to Smartphone Use

Country	Users (million)
China	782+
India	386+
USA	235+
Brazil	91+
Russia	84+
Indonesia	67+
Japan	65+
Mexico	60+
Germany	57+
United Kingdom	46+

China’s dominance is explained by the boom in mobile device production in that country. In just a few years, Huawei has reached number 4 after Samsung, Apple and Google Pixel (ICTbuz.com, 2020) and is predicted to overtake Apple in the near future. Chinese manufacturers after Huawei in the rankings include One Plus, Xiaomi and the increasingly popular Oppo.

Based on the significant number of smartphones in the world, it is clear that a huge amount of data traffic takes place via mobile devices (Figure 1.3). A survey for Ericsson shows data on mobile traffic by region, with a forecast increase of 25% by 2025 (Chaffey, 2020).

Figure 1.3Mobile data traffic by region measured in GB. (Adapted from Chaffey, 2020.)

The significant number of mobile devices and the presumption that their computing power can be used in the workplace highlight the need to develop strategies for their effective management and control, as well as the deployment of specific schemes aimed at achieving high levels of business process efficiency, as these technologies provide a variety of opportunities to enhance and stimulate business. It is recommended that include elements of the concepts bring your own device (BYOD), choose your own device (CYOD), and so forth, should be included in these strategies. Combinations of several concepts are possible, as well as effective, tools for the management and control of mobile devices, such as mobile device management (MDM), enterprise mobility management (EMM), mobile application management (MAM), and so on, to ensure the successful deployment and management of mobile devices aimed at increasing business efficiency.

1.2 Review of the Literature

Different concepts for managing mobile devices in an enterprise environment imply different levels of freedom and control in their use in routine tasks, as well as variability in device ownership. Some of the basic concepts for managing mobile devices in an enterprise environment are described in detail below.

The concept of BYOD involves the use of consumer devices to perform business operations and tasks and subsequent integration of employees’ personal mobile devices in the corporate infrastructure (IBM, 2017). These devices include smartphones, tablets, laptops and other wearable devices, finding an application to perform specific tasks, load various applications and access databases. BYOD is driven by the rapid proliferation of mobile devices in recent years and their entry into all walks of life and at the same time is considered one of the leading topics for IT managers today. According to experts from Forrester IT departments are becoming more flexible and more tolerant of the BYOD culture, and at the same time, along with smartphones and tablets, more and more individually owned laptops are used in employees’ work (Forester, 2019).

The business benefits of implementing the BYOD initiative generally include increased productivity, collaboration and communication with colleagues and better final results in teamwork and lower costs, especially the cost of mobility, job satisfaction, flexibility and new opportunities for a harmonious combination of personal and work activities by employees. To these are added the creation and maintenance of new channels for interaction with customers, employees, and business partners; more effective cooperation with colleagues and better end results in teamwork; greater efficiency in using IT resources; and improvement of the social climate in the company.

The huge number of devices and the chaos in their use within companies is a major problem in the implementation of the BYOD concept. Other problems are mainly related to the processing of sensitive data, the large range of devices used, and vulnerabilities of the devices themselves (Bluechip, 2012).

Despite these problems, interest in BYOD is constantly growing at a very fast pace and this affects managers and leaders, who cannot remain indifferent to the widespread use of mobile devices. Practice has shown that, in recent years, Chief Information Officers have recognized and supported the importance of workplace mobility. About 77% of IT managers planned to allow staff to use personal mobile devices to access the company’s data and applications; 56% supported the strong demand from employees for various mobile devices; 41% of leading staff considered costs to be a critical challenge for BYOD; 30% believed that laptops can be replaced by tablets in the coming years; and almost all IT chiefs expect to provide more than 25 mobility applications over the next few years (Akella et al., 2012).

Because every user has a preference for devices, many prefer their own device in a private environment. In this regard, companies can compile a list of approved devices that will meet the requirements of employees within the company. This is how the CYOD concept was formed. It offers a culturally oriented approach to the mobile business environment; devices can be pre-configured with all the necessary applications for employee productivity and to protect sensitive data that could be present on or accessible through a mobile device.

Focusing on the CYOD concept requires companies to take responsibility for the selection and acquisition of devices for employees (Insight, 2014). Next, a solution must be given to the problems associated with MDM (Networkworld, 2015). MDM can be implemented as software to be pre-installed on devices; however, device ownership issues remain. In this regard, device providers can assist through a number of activities, such as maintaining and optimizing any mobile environment.

In addition to MDM, an effective way to control mobile devices is EMM (Lirex, 2019), which includes a set of technologies, processes and policies aimed at centralized control of the use of mobile devices owned by the organization and its employees. Through the technologies of EMM devices and applications for corporate implementation, use and update can be configured, and also EMM can provide mechanisms for replacement or device access removal to the organization. EMM technologies can be used to track and inventory devices, apply settings in their use, as well as to establish compliance with corporate policies and manage means of access. Basically, EMM solutions are implemented by adding control for data encryption, data access rights, shared devices, packaging applications, and containers and locking devices.

However, practice shows that the application of EMM alone is not enough. It is necessary to implement a set of activities related to MAM (Microsoft, 2020). These activities and technologies are linked to software and services that provide and control access for both employee-owned smartphones and tablets and mobile applications in a business context. These mobile applications can either be commercially available to the public or...