Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – What is it & Why it matters for businesses

Businesses must run with the time. What can be done to reach a tech-savvy generation that relies heavily on media every free second of their time? BYOD– Bring Your Own Device, a trend that is catching on quickly. Many ask what BYOD is and why it matters for businesses. BYOD has transformed the business world by creating new opportunities to grow. As the demand for wireless devices on enterprise wireless networks continues to accelerate, business owners are being in constant pressure to allow BYOD on their highly secure enterprise wireless network. In simple words, BYOD is the practice of employees bringing their own devices to work & using those for their work, instead of company’s devices. This can make employees comfortable & more productive as they are very much acquainted with their own device.

If you are not aware of BYOD program, you need to read this blog. We are going to highlight all the news related to BYOD.

“At the end of the day, what users want is their apps and data on any device.”

– Vittorio Viarengo, VP- VMware

Why BYOD is important for Corporate?

The BYOD program has provided a number of new opportunities as well as few challenges for businesses. As a business owner, if you can allow your employees to follow BYOD, and allow them to use their smartphones, laptops, tablets to stay updated on business emails, work, reports etc., it can prove out to be very productive for your business. As the business culture & environment is changing at a great pace, most of the employees are ready for the BYOD trend. This can also provide an opportunity to improve work-life balance.

Here are few reasons, why BYOD is important:

Increase Productivity

When your employees are using a device which is very much familiar to them, they can work freely. IT will reduce time as well as give your employees an opportunity to work in a very flexible environment. Employees can easily organize reports & answer business emails whenever it’s required. Meantime, your employees can stay connected with their personal life through social media & personal use applications. This can definitely make them stress-free, flexible, updated and more over it will increase the overall productivity of your business.

Cost Saving

If BYOD is implemented, then it can reduce overall company cost significantly. If employees are using their own device, then it will reduce your maintenance cost, device cost, and hardware cost. A company can save a lot of money when the majority of the cost is being paid by the employees.

Improved Employee Loyalty

A clear BYOD strategy can increase employee loyalty to your business by allowing them to control their own work. Your employees can be empowered & they can also work offsite when they don’t have to choose between their personal device & office device. Rather than being addressing technical issues in their corporate devices, employees are happier using the same devices they already prefer & comfortable.

Lesser Security Risks

If you have a well-planned & executed BYOD policy for your organization, all important business data will be stored up in cloud, all the connected personal devices will act as terminals to access assigned files or folders. That means personal devices are just tools to access information. In the case of any misuse or loss of device, company can remove the device’s access. This is very secure.

Work Anywhere, Anytime

As BYOD promotes personal device use, it encourages employees to do all their pending tasks or important task after office hours also. Extra time & work can be added to routine work schedule. It also improves corporate communication & reporting. Quick email replies, access presentations, files transfer, document view etc. can be done at anytime from anywhere. It is clear that a BYOD structure can greatly enhance employee productivity, connectivity & engagement.

“Over 70% of mobile professionals will conduct their work on personal smart devices by 2018”

– Forrester

Major Challenges

If you have not implemented the BYOD strategy for your business, then you are missing an opportunity. But be aware, as with all these pros few challenges are also there. Let’s discuss those.

Security Control

As a lot of devices will be connected to your enterprise network, you need to face the tough security challenge. There are a number of applications, which you can use to secure data on connected mobile devices. Control the data, not the device.

Employee Privacy

You have to balance the privacy of business data in connected devices as well as the privacy of the employees. You need to develop a solution which can keep business data & personal data separate.

Hacking

Your IT manager should implement BYOD strategy without compromising the safety & security of business information. All the devices behavior should actively monitor to keep all the inflow & outflow of business information. You have to track emails as well as spam to prevent hacking or business information leaks.

Corporate IT Policies

You need to make your employees understand your IT policies thoroughly. You should explain them the benefits, their rights, obligations and consequences in breaching policies.

Keys for a successful BYOD Implementation

A successful BYOD implementation requires proper business planning & identifying right solutions for your BYOD needs. Below are few key points for a succ style=”color: #ff6600;”>Requirement Analysis

As a business owner or CIO, it is very important to understand your business BYOD requirements & how you can implement the strategy. You need to select & develop the application which your employees are choosing to use. What are the applications or tools which you can integrate with your business app, and what software to be used for security purpose & data safety? Cloud Based Solutions are the most desired platform to use because of the immense advantages it brings to the business.

Choosing the Correct Solution

Choosing the right set of BYOD solutions is very important. But with the innovation of cloud solutions, it became very easy for SMEs to identify the most suited tools & software for their business needs.

BYOD Policy Creation

After choosing the right solution, it’s time to create & implement some BYOD related IT policies for your business and also employees. BYOD policies when came in a line with cloud based solutions which allows a cost effective business model, your business can be very effective. You need to consider various things while preparing BYOD policies like; Employee reimbursement, software training, technical support for BYOD software, monitoring, data security etc.

Control

You need to control various aspects of the BYOD system. Those aspects are; Mobile security, Remote control devices, device tracking system, device management system, antivirus etc.

Right Option for Business Leaders

Bring -Your- Own -Device (BYOD) is going to continue to become one of the most preferred business strategies in coming years. Which means companies need to be ready with robust security and well defined user guidelines. Both IT department & employees have key roles in creating a successful BYOD enable work environment. Every step has to be plan properly to implement a security forced BYOD policy in place.

On the other hand, businesses may opt for a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) policy. This looks to reduce some of the security risks involved with BYOD by offering employees a certain number of devices from which to work with. Similarly, Cooperate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) devices are also gaining traction in the workplace. In this situation, businesses retain ownership of the device, but employees can use it as if it was their own personal device. Crucially, by retaining ownership of the device, businesses also keep ownership of any data contained within it, which can be a key security concern.

Wireless network security and the excess number of connected mobile devices on the wireless network system are some of the main concerns for many companies. That’s where Apogaeis can help. We are specialized in building complete secure mobility solutions. We plan keeping an eye on the future mobile needs so that you can take full advantages of BYOD. Contact us here with any queries or for a FREE CONSULTATION.