During the past year, collaboration technologies have had their own moment in the sun. In response to the new remote work needs spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations across industries have raced to roll out collaboration suites that keep their workers connected and productive from the safety of home. Largely, these tools have had their intended effect, with many businesses reporting that worker productivity has stayed level or even improved slightly. However, many organizations have found that their collaboration environments are now as rambling, disorganized and inefficient as their mobile environments were a few years ago.

Like mobile solutions, collaboration is here to stay. Organizations that bring a UEM approach to their collaboration environments are the ones that will see the greatest success with these solutions going forward.

The massive move to remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly posed challenges, but it’s also created a valuable opportunity. Remote work shines a spotlight on the employee experience and on IT security, and many organizations have realized that simply moving employees to home offices doesn’t sufficiently address either concern.

Instead, organizations are rethinking the technologies they use to support their teams, which may be quite different when those teams aren’t onsite. Enter unified endpoint management (UEM), designed to address the situation in which so many of us now find ourselves: making it both seamless and secure to work on any device and any network.

When college students and their parents sign their tuition checks, they’re not just paying for the education they receive in the classroom or the degrees they earn at the end of four years of instruction. They’re paying, in large part, for the college experience.

But many higher learning institutions are currently operating with a remote learning model. Students at these schools can’t mingle on the quad, hang out in their dorm rooms or even study together in the library. To deliver the value these students are paying for, colleges and universities must find ways to create an online experience that comes as close as possible to replicating the energy and engagement of the on-campus environment.

Increasingly, colleges and universities are turning to student devices to help deliver that experience. Here are some lessons from institutions that are taking a successful approach.

Until the 1990s, organizations typically had only one kind of computing device to offer end users: the desktop computer. In more recent years, as laptops shrank in size and smartphones emerged, there were some who believed that devices might one day converge again into a single, unified form factor.

That hasn’t happened. Instead, more device types are available today than ever, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for organizations looking to equip their employees for optimal productivity. Instead, IT and business leaders must make decisions based on their specific business goals.

Here are some of the most common objectives that come up in our conversations with IT leaders at organizations across a variety of industries — and which devices are most likely to help organizations meet them.

Savvy IT shops have long understood the need for effective device management, first through mobile device management (MDM) solutions and then via unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms.

Today, more organizations are opting for “modern device management,” a Microsoft-coined term that describes device and application management delivered via cloud-enabled services. Here’s why organizations are making the move and why this model is likely to stick around.

Managing a mobile computing environment was already complex enough at the beginning of this year. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, driving many employees (and their mobile devices) out of the office and into their homes, limiting the visibility and control of IT teams.

Most enterprises were already getting on board with unified endpoint management tools, recognizing the need for a common platform to help them manage their fleets of smartphones, tablets and notebook computers, along with associated mobile apps and content. But for organizations that were dragging their feet with UEM, 2020 has served as a wake-up call about the importance of these tools.

For organizations still looking for the right fit, here are four ways that UEM solutions can help navigate these challenging times.