office-620x465Microsoft announced today that businesses using Office 365 can now tap into the productivity suite for managing their employees’ mobile devices. Organizations with an Office 365 Business, Enterprise, EDU or Government plan will get access to the capabilities, which make it possible for system administrators to control devices that connect to an organization’s sensitive data.

The mobile device management features are free, and work across a number of devices including those running iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The first key capability enabled today is conditional access, which can prevent people from accessing sensitive data except on company controlled hardware. Administrators also get the ability to manage security policies like mandating users secure their devices with a PIN and preventing jailbroken devices from accessing company data.

Finally, in the event a user leaves the organization, administrators can take advantage of a selective wipe capability to just remove the company-owned data from their device while leaving personal information intact. That’s important for people who, for example, also use their company smartphone to take pictures of their kids. Here’s a video that shows an overview of all the features:

It’s all based on Microsoft’s existing Intune and Azure Active Directory products for businesses. Speaking of Intune, organizations that need even stricter controls like the ability to manage whether users can cut, copy and paste in an application can turn to Microsoft’s more full-featured device management solution.

The rollout of the mobile device management capabilities starts today, and Microsoft expects to complete the process within four to six weeks from now.

Mobile device management strategy is increasingly important for IT departments, since more firms allow employees to bring their own devices with them to work. Connecting those devices to a company network can be a security risk, so offering device management capabilities makes Office 365 even more valuable at a time when Microsoft is facing even greater competition from other productivity suites.

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