Case Study

MobileIron + productiv

How MobileIron maximized the value of SaaS

Sumit John of MobileIron

“Productiv has given IT the opportunity to gather usage and insights in new ways.

IT questionnaires don’t work. You should never have to ask users. Now with Productiv we can see on Day 1 how adoption and usage is. Now we can get ahead of the curve.”

– Sumit Johar, CIO at MobileIron

Challenges:

  • Limited visibility of all applications and usage
  • Security and compliance risks
  • SaaS purchases were decentralized
  • Supporting 150+ SaaS applications

Results:

  • Holistic view of SaaS portfolio
  • Real-time data of SaaS applications across company
  • Reduced security and compliance risk
  • Improved collaboration with lines of business
  • Time-savings around data-gathering and analysis

Creating a flexible SaaS-first organization

Founded in 2007, MobileIron is a market-leader in mobile security. The company provides unified endpoint and enterprise mobility management (EMM) for mobile devices, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). MobileIron has seen rapid growth and has close to 1,000 people before Ivanti acquired the company in September 2020.

The growth of SaaS applications forced IT to change how they manage software and applications across the company. Sumit Johar, the CIO, outlined how IT used to be the primary buyer, and their focus was around building and implementing software and services. Now purchases are spread out across the organization, and IT needs to focus on integration and creating value.

Sumit’s goal was a shift in how IT operated, and to make MobileIron a true SaaS and subscription company. That meant creating an agile set of internal operations, and tools and technologies that enable that flexibility. All driven by data to help him make right decisions on what is working and what is not.

150

SAAS APPLICATTIONS

Increased Visibility

MobileIron used to conduct 3 weeks audits every quarter just to see what SaaS applications employees had purchased. Now with Productiv, he had a full view of all SaaS applications on one screen. In fact, once they installed Productiv, they even discovered 30-35 apps they had never seen before. Many of these apps weren’t intentionally being hidden, they were orphaned as employees left, or had been a trial purchase. Now Sumit could easily see all applications and feel more confident that he had real-time visibility.

90

DISCOVERED SAAS APPLICATIONS

Improved Compliance and Security

MobileIron’s business model was focused on security, and Sumit needed to know that his SaaS applications were secure and compliant. The team leveraged Productiv to monitor SaaS applications from multiple angles to ensure governance and minimize risk. For example, Sumit could see if there were 20 new SaaS applications that were not behind SSO. Or he could see if there was a service that was being in a way it wasn’t intended in the contract. He could even manage licenses when someone left the company and ensure the applications were secure. Productiv provided him the visibility to ensure that tools were being used properly and interject if there was an issue.

20

NEW APP REQUESTS PER MONTH

Align Usage and ROI of Tools

Most importantly, Sumit and team wanted to understand usage and adoption of each SaaS application. They could not rely on IT surveys that employees would not fill out. With Productiv, they could see real-time usage insights and start collecting stats on adoption of tools on Day 1. If his team was migrating users to a new tool, he could quickly understand how many people had switched and if they were happy, all without needing a survey. “After all, what’s the point in moving 100 people to a new tool if the first 10 are not happy?” Sumit explained. Productiv provided him with real-data instead of needing to rely on gut feelings that weren’t often right.

“Before Productiv, we had pretty good control on the critical apps that IT is closely involved with.

But the risk lies with the ones that they don’t manage or the ones that skipped the assessment step somehow. For a long time, we didn’t even know the size of the problem.”

— Sumit Johar, CIO of MobileIron

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