Endpoint management solutions are essential for any organization serious about protecting its network from the security risks posed by lost or stolen mobile devices. Learn more about telecom expense management and how device tracking and endpoint management connect directly to controlling both security and financial risks across your organization. It’s easy for people to lose track of their belongings. This might include car keys, wallets, umbrellas, and mobile devices. For personal devices, this can be a headache for individuals. When a mobile device belongs to your organization, it remains connected to your network and produces financial and security risks to the company.
Learn how you can mitigate this security risk with endpoint management tools.
Why Lost Devices Are a Serious Security and Financial Risk
Bad actors who want to access your network can use lost devices to help them hack into your corporate network. Even BYOD devices that connect to a network can result in significant security vulnerabilities. Hackers can use devices to find a backdoor into your network or use them for social engineering hacking.
For example, hackers targeting your company can use information from any mobile device that connects to your network. By reading messages, hackers know what department the employee works for and what projects they are pursuing. Using company jargon and references, hackers sometimes reach out to finance departments to require wire transfers. Some of these efforts contain convincing messages that it may be hard for your team to recognize as fraud.
Other risks include the following:
- Financial costs
- Regulatory fines
- Stolen corporate or customer data
- Loss of trust
- Recovery expense
- Notification expense (to tell customers their data has been compromised)
According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach now exceeds $4.8 million globally — with endpoint vulnerabilities from lost or stolen devices consistently ranking among the top entry points for attackers. To avoid these risks, it’s critical to track and control company-owned smartphones and tablets and track BYOD devices. How do you implement this in an efficient, effective manner?
Unified Endpoint Management: The Core of Device Security
You can pair unified endpoint management or UEM solutions with devices that connect to your network. These solutions include MobileIron and AirWatch as well as many other vendors. Implementing a device management program can help you track lost devices and prevent security risks.
So, how does it work?
Let’s say an employee loses a company smartphone or tablet. They might not realize right away that they have left it behind at the airport or that someone removed it from their workstation. Therefore, it may be some time before they notify your device management team. If you have unified endpoint management, the IT team can wipe the device remotely upon notification from the employee. However, this usually takes many hours which provides a window of opportunity to hackers and thieves.
By pairing UEM with an automated device management program, you empower an employee to start the process with a lost device alert. At this point, several workflows go into action. For example, an API contacts your UEM system to clear the device.
This secures the device while other workflows begin the process of ordering a replacement for company hardware or requesting information regarding the new BYOD device. It can also trigger transferring licenses and apps to a replacement device.
Enacting multiple workflows at the same time can cut back on administrative processes and resolve the issue much more quickly through the use of APIs and bots. For organizations managing large device fleets, understanding how to gain accuracy avoid late fees and device-related costs is a natural complement to a strong endpoint management strategy.
Endpoint Management and Financial Control Working Together
The financial implications of poor endpoint management extend well beyond the immediate cost of replacing a lost device. Every untracked device represents a potential compliance violation, a security liability, and a gap in your telecom inventory that makes accurate expense management nearly impossible.
Organizations that implement robust endpoint management solutions consistently find that the financial benefits extend beyond security. When every device is tracked, provisioned, and accounted for, telecom expense management becomes significantly more accurate. Billing errors tied to ghost devices are eliminated, unauthorized service activations are caught immediately, and the cost of device lifecycle management drops substantially. Reviewing the top 7 telecom expense management tips shows just how central device visibility is to controlling overall telecom costs.
Compliance Benefits of a Unified Endpoint Management System
A device management system partnered with a UEM allows you to register devices across both platforms. This is a good cross-check that enhances security and can prevent Trojan horses from threatening your security framework.
Tangoe and similar providers allow your company to adopt best practices and control your devices from a financial and security standpoint. It also streamlines the process of getting replacement devices back into your employees’ hands so that they can remain productive.
Beyond internal efficiency, compliance benefits are increasingly critical as data privacy regulations tighten globally. GDPR, CCPA, and a growing number of sector-specific regulations place direct obligations on organizations to demonstrate control over devices that access personal or sensitive data. A UEM solution provides the audit trail and enforcement capabilities needed to satisfy regulators and protect the organization from costly fines. For technology consultants and resellers supporting enterprise clients, understanding how telecom resellers system integrators need to know about TEM and endpoint management creates significant opportunities to deliver additional value.
Building a Complete Endpoint Management Strategy
The most effective endpoint management strategies combine three elements: a robust UEM platform, automated workflow capabilities, and integration with your broader telecom expense management system. Together, these create a closed-loop environment where every device is tracked from provisioning through retirement, every cost is accounted for, and every security risk is mitigated as quickly as possible.
Organizations that treat endpoint management as a standalone IT function — separate from finance, HR, and telecom expense management — consistently achieve worse outcomes than those that integrate it into a unified technology governance framework. The security benefits are maximized when device tracking feeds directly into inventory management, and the financial benefits are maximized when inventory management feeds directly into invoice auditing and contract optimization.
Lost devices will always be a reality in any organization with a mobile workforce. The question is not whether you can prevent every loss — you cannot. The question is how quickly and completely you can respond when a loss occurs, and how tightly your systems are integrated to minimize the window of risk and financial exposure.
Ready to strengthen your organization’s endpoint management and telecom expense controls? Contact Valicom today and let our team help you build a more secure, more cost-effective device management strategy.
