The unified ecosystem management approach
You found a brilliant paralegal to add to the team. The only catch is that they are (Ack! Egad!) not an Apple user. What are you to do? Would it be discrimination to not hire them based on their platform preference? Probably… but we aren’t the lawyers. The good news is you don’t have to fret, there are tech solutions that can manage these seemingly insurmountable problems.
The unified ecosystem
This fancy five-dollar term is the concept that users prefer to keep all of their devices in the same family (Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.), while employers are more keen on offering the employee-choice model. It used to be that setting up workflow systems on different platforms was an IT professional’s greatest nightmare. Now, however, there are ways to let your employees keep their preferences while integrating the devices and tech that your office supports.
Unified ecosystem management for a Law Firm
While your new paralegal may prefer their Android and Microsoft Surface, you are going to have to ask them to Apple-adapt. But with the new unified ecosystem concept and practical applications, you don’t have to force them to completely convert. Instead, they get to work from the office or remotely on the Mac that you will provide and they can keep their devices, which will integrate via the unified ecosystem management tool of your choice.
Setting up your new team member with the lens of unified ecosystem management means that you are asking them which device they’re most familiar with, how long it takes them to access the tools they need and complete their work on this device and if they are the most productive with this device. Additionally, you need to address the question of whether or not they can work anywhere, anytime with this device. While you do need to ask a certain level of Mac-compliance, you can also trust them to get the job done via other devices if it’s truly more productive for them.
One of the best unified ecosystem management platforms out there is from Jamf. Jamf collaborated with Microsoft to create a technology that ensures trusted users, from compliant devices, using approved apps, can access your firm’s private data. While this is still a relatively new field and connecting devices is not quite as simple as it should be, we will only be seeing more of these integrated solutions in the future. So, never fear. You don’t have to screen your new hires based on their device preference. Let them have their Google tablet (and eat it too!) while also interfacing with the all-Mac office you worked so hard to create
