Program Vice President, Endpoint Management & Enterprise Mobility
Leaders
Micro FocusFeatured Vendor
Cisco
IBM
Microsoft
Quest
Samsung
Zoho (ManageEngine)
Sophos
Major Players
Baramundi
BlackBerry
SOTI
42 Gears
Jamf
Ivanti
Vmware
Hexnode
Matrix 42
When selecting and deploying unified endpoint management (UEM) software, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have different requirements, priorities, and trusted supplier sources compared with larger organizations. SMBs typically operate with smaller IT teams, often a few people or a single person responsible for the firm’s entire technology estate. This makes the consolidation and integration promise of UEM very appealing — fewer tools for managing, securing, and monitoring more things.
In addition to device endpoint management versatility, SMBs can benefit from bundling UEM tools with adjacent IT products used in the organization’s environment — including networking, security, server management, and overall business software platforms. This integration and bundled pricing can sometimes trump the underlying functionality of an UEM product when SMBs are selecting vendors. A best-of-breed UEM may not be the right choice for an organization if it can get an UEM tool, plus a large portion of its overall IT product toolset, from a single vendor.
SMBs also seek technology partners that can integrate with outsourced or managed service providers (SPs), as well as mobile operators/telcos, as these are common channels for SMBs to acquire UEM and mobility technology. Most small businesses tend to source their mobile devices from the mobile carrier they use for service, which makes these carriers important partners for supplying mobility management and, increasingly, UEM tools to SMBs. Similarly, partners can succeed in the UEM market for SMBs if they sell and integrate multiple IT product categories to SMB customers, such as networking, servers, storage, security, and communications platforms. To that end, some key considerations for SMBs looking for UEM partners are:
Buyers of UEM software should look for the following attributes, capabilities, and relevant use case scenario support from vendors under consideration:
This section briefly explains IDC’s key observations resulting in a vendor’s position in the IDC MarketScape. While every vendor is evaluated against each of the criteria outlined in the Appendix, the description here provides a summary of each vendor’s strengths and challenges.
Micro Focus is positioned in the Leaders category in this 2022 IDC MarketScape for worldwide UEM software for SMBs.
Micro Focus is a United Kingdom–based enterprise IT management and security software vendor with a large enterprise software product portfolio. ZENworks UEM is an evolution of the company’s ZENworks product line of PCLM, ITSM, identity, security, and other management software (originally created by Novell, which Micro Focus previously acquired).
ZENworks has a strong analytics story. The company acquired Interset, which made user behavior analytics software. Micro Focus combines this with its device-level logs and data to provide analytics on end-user behavior combined with endpoint device configuration and asset information. ZENworks integrates with Android Enterprise as well as Microsoft Graph API for Office 365 app policy enforcement and integration. It also supports tvOS for Apple TV deployments where the devices are configured and managed centrally for single-use deployments (conference room presentations, interactive/dynamic digital signage, etc.).
ZENworks has a wide range of complementary management and reporting software products, including ZENworks Asset Management (can be tied to contracts, allowing for monitoring of software usage for billing purposes) as well as ZENworks Service Desk, an ITIL-based IT service desk solution that can integrate with ZENworks UEM. ZENworks Endpoint Security Management is another tool in the portfolio relevant to EMM/UEM with adjacent integration capabilities that protect Windows devices, including antimalware/antivirus, low-level firewall capabilities, app blacklisting, and VPN enforcement (i.e., for public WLAN access point connections and fixed and removable drive encryption). Other adjacent software platforms that integrate with ZENworks in the Micro Focus portfolio include NetIQ eDirectory for IAM and ArcSight — the SIEM platform formerly owned by HPE’s software division, which spun off and merged with Micro Focus in 2017.
IT teams operating with small or minimal staff should consider ZENworks UEM. SMBs are also prime candidates to consider the platform, as it can incorporate multiple IT functions into a single product. Larger firms using multiple Micro Focus products (such as identity, data protection, or security products) should also consider ZENworks UEM from a single vendor–management and product integration perspective.
IDC invited vendors to participate in this assessment based on the following key criteria:
In addition to the companies profiled in this study, there are a number of other companies in the UEM market. These include Apple, Addigy, Amtel, Citrix, HMD, Kandji, Prey Software, SimpleMDM, Tanium, and Verizon.
For the purposes of this analysis, IDC divided potential key measures for success into two primary categories: capabilities and strategies.
Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor’s current capabilities and menu of services and how well aligned the vendor is to customer needs. The capabilities category focuses on the capabilities of the company and product today, here and now. Under this category, IDC analysts will look at how well a vendor is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen strategy in the market.
Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the vendor’s future strategy aligns with what customers will require in three to five years. The strategies category focuses on high-level decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, customer segments, and business and go-to-market plans for the next three to five years.
The size of the individual vendor markers in the IDC MarketScape represents the market share of each individual vendor within the specific market segment being assessed.
IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent well-researched IDC judgment about the market and specific vendors. IDC analysts tailor the range of standard characteristics by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and the input of IDC experts in each market. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions on the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor’s characteristics, behavior, and capability.
Unified endpoint management (UEM) is a technology submarket category of the client endpoint management functional software market. UEM solutions combine into a single software platform the management and provisioning functions for most common end-user computing operating systems (i.e., Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Chrome OS) and device types. By definition, UEM products must be able to manage both mobile and PC endpoints; this excludes legacy platforms such as PC life-cycle management (PCLM), PC imaging solutions, and mobile device management (MDM).
