Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is a popular practice in which employees use their own devices – smartphones, tablets and laptops – at work for work purposes. BYOD is a growing trend amongst small and medium businesses, quickly becoming the norm rather than the exception. To protect yourself, your business network and your entire clients’ confidential information, steps must be taken to ensure safety. You’ll need to invest in Mobile Device Management (MDM) which will help keep your company network secure and assist in setting BYOD policies in place. Mobile Application Management (MAM) does the same for software and can help track work progress and host online meetings. Up-to-date, enterprise-level antivirus programs and cloud services are essential.
The extra care is necessary in business planning when implementing BYOD, but the benefits come in scores. Is it right for your business? Here are 4 reasons to consider BYOD:
BYOD Cuts Costs
Having employees bring in their own devices allows your business to have all the benefits of up-to-date hardware, without the firm footing the expense. In this way, BYOD can work very well for smaller businesses, and in fact cutting costs is often the main motivation for implementing BYOD.
BYOD Suits Staff
People tend to be more familiar and comfortable using their own devices. If an employee uses Apple products at home and Microsoft products at work, retraining them can be costly and time-consuming, and they’ll always be readjusting. Bringing their own device in to work means they already know how to use it and they’re comfortable with it. If they can connect it to your network quickly and easily, any relevant apps can be downloaded and run straight away. This increases worker satisfaction and increases efficiency. (Watch out for cross-platform compatibility issues, though!)
BYOD Reduces Devices
Employees will bring phones and tablets to work, BYOD or no BYOD. But with a proper BYOD plan in place, your employees won’t have to juggle numerous devices throughout the day. They’ll have just one phone and laptop/tablet for work and home use. Work that would normally have to be completed on-site can now be carried out anywhere – ensuring higher productivity and availability to clients. Employees are more likely to keep working after office hours and have their devices with them all the time. Staff satisfaction is higher as they have devices they prefer, and consumer-level device-plus-network contracts are going to have the latest software and up-to-date hardware.
BYOD Attracts New Hires
BYOD is attractive to potential staff members, and whether a company has BYOD or not can influence a person’s decision to work there. Studies have shown that 44% of job hunters count BYOD as an attractive selling point – they won’t have to retrain to use business devices – and this can also help to cut your overheads. Sometimes, using their own devices means that you can change the post definition from in-house employee to remote worker or even contractor, and many millennial staff will prefer this. So should you: working from home, on their own devices, staffs show an increase in productivity and efficiency. If you’re headhunting – BYOD is the place to be!
If you’re worried about the implications brought on by implementing BYOD, Stratosphere Networks can help. With ample experience in the IT field, Stratosphere Networks will work to ensure that your security and production needs are met so as to reap the benefits of BYOD plans. Call us today at (877) 599-3999 or fill out our contact form.