News
Essilor Sees Increase in Employee Productivity with Tablets and Apps Managed by AirWatch
March 2014 by Marc Jacob
According to a survey conducted by Pierre Audoin Consultants*, 45 percent of employers believe that providing employees with a range of mobile devices and applications will serve as motivation and ensure their loyalty. Additionally, 55 percent of employers believe mobile devices can boost employees’ productivity on the job. However, 53 percent of survey respondents expressed concern that allowing employees to use mobile devices and applications in the workplace will increase security risks and administrative costs*. To reduce security risks while still embracing mobile technology, many companies turn to an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution.
As a company that values innovation, Essilor France decided to replace its corporate fleet of laptops with sleek, portable tablets equipped with business-related apps, for its sales force: sales and medical representatives. The tablets were needed to streamline front office activities, such as product presentations to clients, and back office activities such as managing customer relations.
The Client
Essilor International is the world’s largest manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses, based in France and quoted on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange. Essilor operates in over 60 countries and employs nearly 55,000 associates. For the third consecutive year, Essilor has been recognised as one of the 30 most innovative companies in the world by the magazine Forbes.**
In 2012, the company launched lenses that marked a technological breakthrough. Essilor France wanted to equip the sales force with more efficient tools. The objective was to deploy 100 iPads, equipped with appropriate apps, to Essilor’s sales team prior to a global trade show. The deadline could only be reached with the help of an EMM solution. "We chose AirWatch to implement our mobile initiative because it offers the most features on the market and variable costs, thanks to a scalable cloud solution, says Mathieu Ngo, IT project Manager at Essilor International. “Pre-sales commercial assistance and on-going support were also requirements for us when evaluating EMM providers.”
The Solution
With Corporate-Owned Personally Enabled (COPE) devices and Bring Your Own Applications (BYOA) programs available to employees, Essilor embraces the consumerization of IT in a controlled manner. Employees can use corporate devices for personal use and can install their own apps. AirWatch enables Essilor to manage and secure the devices with a passcode and to remotely wipe devices in the event of loss or theft. Devices can access corporate email accounts, calendar, contacts and office applications, allowing employees to view and edit documents. Several profiles were pushed to the corporate devices based on the employees’ role in the company, to provide access to relevant information and B2B apps.
Mobile App Management (MAM) is crucial for Essilor, which offers both internal B2B and public apps bought thanks to the Apple Volume Purchase Programme. These apps are pushed onto the devices or hosted in Essi Store, Essilor’s Enterprise App Catalog. B2B app enables the sales team to present products and services to opticians and healthcare professionals. For back office activities, ‘Teranga’, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app, allows a constant exchange of information with the central CRM tool ‘Siebel’. "Implementing AirWatch was a quick and intuitive process,” said Christian Le Page, chief information officer, Essilor France. “It has enabled us to deliver business-ready devices to our sales team in a timely manner.”
Up Next
New tablets running on Windows® 8 will be deployed to other departments. Essilor is exploring AirWatch® Mobile Content Management and AirWatch® Secure Content Locker™, as well as VPN integration. Essilor France regularly discusses its mobile management strategy with the other European subsidiaries.
*Mobile Device & Application Management in Germany, France, the UK, and Switzerland", PAC GmbH, 2013
