BYOD Trending in Business
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 Ellie Woodberry, Bluefire PR
Although many larger companies and corporations have made policies against BYOD (bring your own device) to/at work, more forward thinking smaller companies are finding that with the right technology and safe guards in place, it isn’t so bad.
BYOD poses some understandable risks both to the company’s data banks and the privately owned tablets, smartphones, and laptops employees bring to work.
Smaller businesses are finding that it cuts way back on expenses for the company, because all of the hardware they would normally have to purchase they don’t, and employees are happier, more productive, able to communicate through live chat with co-workers on their own devices, and more careful with the hardware because it belongs to them and not the company.
Many European nations, who are often more forward thinking and less frightened about risks and therefore jump ahead of the trends, are creating BYOD policies for their employees to follow. France alone has found that 71% of its employees engage in BYOD, and the results are quite positive. These employees are finding that the companies they work for don’t provide the apps and even the necessary hardware to make the job less complicated, and thus they bring their own devices and apps to work to get the job done.
Cautionary Tales From IT Story Spinners
Personal devices are sometimes lost or stolen, hijacked without the owner securing the company’s files on his or her device. While this certainly could happen, we haven’t heard any horror stories yet. There are ways to make everyone happy without the fears of more trouble than it’s worth with BYOD.
BYOD, Productivity, The Company, And Thee
Taking cues from other companies with BYOD policies in place, you can write your own policy on it. Perhaps you want to narrow it down to the company’s upper crust, or just limit information to “need to know” access levels. Incorporating the right malware detection, such as products like Spyware for all BYOD devices that come in contact with company information, and any and all other protective services is also a good place to start.
Understandably, the software tools that employees need makes all the difference in the world too. If you could design one bit of software that lets everyone connect safely, securely and collaborate together without worrying what device they are working from, what would it look like? Chances are, it would look something like MS Sharepoint, which does all that and more.
Even live chat within Sharepoint is protected; no personal devices have an effect on Sharepoint’s flexibility. It’s a pretty good example of productive employee software and what can be achieved with it. There are also several mobile apps that work well with the BYOD culture, and giving employees the opportunity to participate in the input shows a rise in productivity within a short time.
Still not sure if you and your company can manage BYOD? You can always have your employees check for clearance before using their own devices. There are several smartphone companies out there that are building enterprise- secure features into their phones.
Your IT department could be in charge of this new task, which might otherwise be daunting at best. Lists of which devices currently have those security features can be found with each phone developer, and you can rest at night knowing your employees are happy in their work with their own screened in devices.
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