BYOD is a relatively new trend impacting the business world across the globe and it’s gathering pace. BYOD affects businesses of all size and could already be infiltrating your business today without you even knowing it.
BYOD is more commonly known as Bring Your Own Device although you may have heard different terms such as:
*BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology)
*BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone)
*BYOPC (Bring Your Own PC).
With the massive surge in “consumerisation of IT” fuelled by the increase in sales of smart phones, tablets and laptops, there has been a shift towards IT self sufficiency among employees, who see their devices as superior to those offered by the company.
These newer, “superior” devices are seen as the future, and who can blame an employee from wishing to use their iPhone over an old style, “app-less” phone or the latest super-fast tablet or laptop over an ageing, slow Windows XP or earlier desktop PC? It’s embarrassing to be given a relic of a phone and it rarely provides a positive image of the business.
Furthermore, there’s a desire from employees to use one device to share between business and personal use which is understandable.
There are many advantages of BYOD for business owners:
- Reduce capital expenditure by not replacing dated computers or phones
- Portraying a more modern-looking, forward thinking business by adopting BYOD
- Increasing the feel-good factor among staff through modernisation
- Potentially increasing effectiveness and efficiency through implementation of new technology.
- You are deemed a more attractive business when recruiting, because you are seen to be a flexible and modern employer.
Of course, there are more far reaching consequences of adopting BYOD, which will require consultation at the highest level with HR, IT, Finance managers/directors and of course, outside consultation with your IT support company.
There’s a dark side to this new-age business approach. Each issue is deep and requires careful consideration and a written policy behind it. This policy MUST be extremely clear to ensure you are protecting both the business and the employee’s personal rights…
By far the greatest challenge for any business when agreeing to a BYOD policy is the critical issue of security.After all, you are allowing an employee’s personal device to access secure areas of data. There are three key aspects requiring specific attention:
1) The level of access provided
2) Storage of data on this device.
3) Security of this device.
Within each of these critical statements there are many additional questions to answer e.g. under point 1 “can the device access key data outside of the confines of the workplace?” If so, what additional security protocols are required and will this conflict with personal settings on the device?”
“How is data protected if stored on a personal device and who must pay for the additional security software required?”
Companies often have a policy to restrict access to certain websites whilst at work. However, “if personal devices are used at work, how do you stop misuse of the internet on a personal device during work time or break times?” e.g. access to social media. Does this mean employees cannot access these websites on their break using their own personal device?
Let’s take a look at some of the other key questions to further raise the debate…To read the remainder of this article, please visit our website:
http://www.urbanitsolutions.co.uk/what-is-byod-in-business-and-can-you-really-afford-to-ignore-it/
With over 15 years of Business Transformation Consultancy experience working with a range of Small and Medium Enterprise clients, understanding and resolving the issues they face with Information…
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