Investment Firm Embraces Employee-Owned Devices with MobileIron Management and Security

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, March 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Thames River Capital accelerates smartphone and tablet adoption in the enterprise

Thames River Capital, a leading UK-based boutique investment firm with more than $14 billion in assets under management, has deployed MobileIron (www.mobileiron.com) to enable the secure adoption of smartphone and tablet devices into its enterprise environment. Providing a central view of mobile activity, usage and service quality for both company and employee-owned devices, MobileIron has enabled the flexible enforcement of data and device security policies as well as improved capacity planning and mobile cost control across the investment firm.

The nature of fund management makes it essential that partners, managers and investors have access to email and line of business applications 24/7 in the UK and around the world. However, securing the range of devices that enable this productivity represented a clear challenge for the IT department.

Robert Cockerill, IT Manager, Thames River Capital, comments, "We made the decision to shift from a 100 percent corporate-liable model for smartphones to one where we could give our employees the opportunity to use their own devices. In addition to BlackBerry and iPhone management, we also needed to be able to support and secure the new iPads that were beginning to come into the firm."

Thames River Capital turned to its trusted IT partner, BlueFort Security, to implement a solution that could control the devices accessing the network and, critically, mitigate the risk of sensitive data falling into the wrong hands from either lost or stolen mobile devices. Although Thames River Capital wanted to use cutting-edge technology the firm didn't want to be a test customer.

Ian Jennings, Technical Director at BlueFort, explains "Companies have learned that once you've opened the door with ActiveSync, anyone can get in and you have no idea who they are or what they're doing. For Thames River Capital, it was essential we provide a technology that had been field-tested and proven by other customers. We researched a number of options with them, and MobileIron's Virtual Smartphone Platform was the clear winner."

The firm chose MobileIron, the innovator in mobile device management and security, for its ability to support the broadest range of Mobile Operating Systems, including Blackberry, iPhone and iPad, and manage the mobile devices, and the data on them, remotely. With MobileIron in place, IT can set role-based, granular policies to ensure that only approved, compliant devices (whether corporate- or employee-owned) are able to access the corporate network. The solution also creates clear boundaries between personal and business data on employee-owned devices, for example, the lost phone lock and wipe functionality is activated by the user, but configured by IT to ensure enterprise data privacy.

"Following a successful evaluation, we implemented the technology and haven't looked back. If there's one thing we've learned during this process, it's that one should only embrace employee-owned devices if one also has foolproof tools for their management," concluded Cockerill. "MobileIron provides exactly the framework we need to let our people use the device of their choice."

For more information about MobileIron and Financial Services, please visit http://www.mobileiron.com/industries/financial-services.

About Thames River

Thames River is a multi-boutique asset management group established in 1998. Thames River and its affiliates manage a range of multi-manager funds, UCITs III funds and long/short funds. Thames River's investment teams specialise in areas including funds of alternative investment funds, multi-manager, global bonds, global credit, real-estate securities and water and agriculture. Thames River became part of the F&C group in September 2010 and is now F&C's core funds business and its funds distributor in the retail and wholesale channels.

About MobileIron

MobileIron is solving the problems CIOs face as business data and applications move to smart phones and tablets. The MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform is the first solution to give IT and users real-time intelligence and control over mobile content, activity, and apps in order to secure the enterprise, reduce wireless cost, and improve the mobile user experience. For more information, please visit http://www.mobileiron.com.