Embracing the latest technologies to efficiently cater to your business needs is not child’s play. It requires a lot of painstaking effort along with an expert’s guidance. Many IT departments are struggling to include advanced technologies. But, as their demand is incessantly increasing, there has to be a relevant solution.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is one of the many issues managed by the IT department. This approach basically leverages “consumerization of IT” while allowing the employees to access the corporate data via their own devices. This strategy can help heighten productivity and reduce development costs.
Like, every coin has two sides, BYOD also has a darker side. If the approach is misunderstood and not regulated appropriately, it can become a menace to IT security and can risk the crucial business systems of an organization.
Having said that, the significance of understanding the BYOD strategy and the associated risk is pretty much clear. In this article, I will decipher the benefits of incorporating the BYOD strategy in a business and the threats it can generate when it is not implemented in an ideal manner.
Let’s delve deep into the topic.
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BYOD – Bring Your Own Device
The proliferation of mobile devices and technology had made it hard for organizations to adopt the employees’ trend of using their personal devices for work. Thus, it created a huge challenge for organizations to integrate a variety of devices into the enterprise IT architecture.
Also, the increased support cost and risks associated with sensitive business data security were the major concerns. BYOD helps organizations deliver agile and consumer-centered solutions and allows employees to develop and apply knowledge at work rapidly.
Today, enterprises seek the best methodologies that can augment the BYOD approach to enhance productivity and mitigate all the risks.
The upsides of integrating BYOD strategy in businesses
There are several benefits of using BYOD in enterprises. Here are a few of them.
1. Boosts productivity and increases employee satisfaction
While employees are away from their workplace, they seek flexibility that can enable them to respond instantly. This can be efficiently accomplished with BYOD, which can help reduce the processing time and improve efficacy. Moreover, by offering freedom to employees to accomplish a task anytime and anywhere and via their preferred devices, higher employee satisfaction can be achieved.
2. Lower support cost
BYOD ensures a cost-efficient solution if employees can manage to maintain and upgrade their devices for work. However, a certain initial investment is required, but the total cost of ownership will be reduced in the long run.
3. Transform the workplace
BYOD has led to the confluence of virtualization, cloud computing, and mobility that has enabled secure access to the resources of an enterprise as and when desired. This facilitates employees to stay creative at work and deliver outstanding solutions.
Challenges associated with the implementation of BYOD
To reap the benefits of BYOD, it is imperative to understand the challenges that can create bottlenecks in your business performance and seek effective solutions to overcome them beforehand. Here are a few of the common challenges and appropriate solutions to break through them.
1. Data security
The sensitive corporate data stored on the device can be secured by enforcing controls and deploying tools.
2. IT security and privacy policy
This can be avoided by creating suitable procedures and policies for IT support staff and employees that can report incidents and ensure an acceptable usage of BYOD.
3. Personal and professional data on the devices
To isolate the corporate data from the personal data in the devices, data segmentation can be implemented.
Risks that must be evaluated when embracing BYOD
As said earlier, while implementing the BYOD policy, certain risks can hinder your performance. Therefore, it would be better to go through the common risks and evaluate them to ensure a smooth and flawless performance.
1. Loss of potential data
For avoiding potential data loss, it is advisable to minimize or eliminate the exposure of sensitive business data.
2. Privacy Issues
Privacy can be attained by incorporating the tracking system in the IT staff tools that handle the devices. These tools can be used for monitoring the device’s location. Therefore, if a device is located in a certain country where a privacy issue may be introduced to the company, IT staff can immediately report that to the authority.
3. If the device is stolen or lost
End-users must be trained to immediately report the business authority if any loss or theft of their device has the business access.
Reflection:
To embrace the trend of BYOD into your business, one must consider the pros and cons related to the policy beforehand. While its benefits are amazing, it could also lead to the loss of crucial data if the policy is misunderstood or if risks are not evaluated initially.
The aforementioned tips to mitigate the risks and understand the challenges can help your business a notch higher with the BYOD strategy. Many organizations are already reaping the benefits of this strategy.
This policy is a sustainable business solution that will hold the reins in the future as well. Thus, it is advisable to kick around and design a BYOD policy by considering all the associated concerns.
Guest author: Addison Cohen is an application developer for Appsted Ltd, an mobile apps development services provider. He loves sharing the latest information on the latest mobile technology.
