Enterprise Mobility Awards: CHG-MERIDIAN wins bronze

At this year's Enterprise Mobility Awards, the technology management and financial services specialist CHG-MERIDIAN secured third place in a field of more than 30 in the Workforce Mobility / Digital Workspace category with its concept of 'choose your own device' rather than 'bring your own device'. The Company, which has a presence in 23 countries and operates worldwide, won over the panel of judges with its comprehensive approach covering the entire IT lifecycle for mobile devices, from optimum commercial arrangements for procurement and funding to secure data erasure and remarketing when the equipment reaches the end of its useful life. The prize was handed over at this year's Enterprise Mobility Summit in Frankfurt.

"Three in four Germans are still teaching themselves digital skills outside of work," says Oliver Schorer, member of the Board of Management and CIO at CHG-MERIDIAN, summing up the challenges. "Companies can – and in the future must – therefore play a much bigger role in ensuring their employees have strong digital skills so that competitors don't get ahead."

Enterprise mobility concepts have taken center stage in recent months in view of the growing strategic importance for companies of using digital technologies. This was also the message of the 2017 Enterprise Mobility Study, which was presented at the summit in Frankfurt: The study found that boundaries between fixed-location digital systems and mobility scenarios are becoming increasingly blurred, especially in the context of mobile workspaces. Consequently, companies and employees have high expectations regarding the capabilities and flexibility of mobile platforms.

"Managing the mobile workspace optimally from a logistical, technical, and commercial perspective creates huge challenges for companies, as does the crucial issue of ensuring that systems are secure," explains Schorer. "Most vendors and service providers only cover some of these aspects."

This is where CHG-MERIDIAN comes in as a non-captive service provider focusing on technology management. Enterprise Mobility Solutions (EMS) promise that employees can choose their own device, meaning maximum flexibility with comprehensive service over the entire lifetime of the asset. "Employees' expectations of their mobile workspace are heavily influenced by what they do privately. They are used to placing orders online and being able to make a choice, so they expect their employers to give them this same flexibility," says Schorer.

At the same time, companies need their procurement processes, costs, and security level to be completely transparent. Data security becomes hugely important in this type of concept. CHG-MERIDIAN also has a solution for equipment that is discarded at the end of its useful life, which is one of the biggest sources of data leaks. The data is erased from the disused devices at the Company's own Technology and Service Center near Frankfurt in a process that has been certified by the TÜV product standards regulator and complies with BSI and DoD requirements.