Embracing the latest technologies to efficiently cater to your business needs is not a child’s play. It requires a lot of painstaking efforts along with an expert’s guidance. Many IT departments are struggling to include the 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 “consumerisation of IT”, while allowing the employees to access the corporate data via their own devices. This strategy can help heighten the productivity and reduce the development costs. Like, every coin has two sides, BYOD also has a darker side. If the approach is misunderstood and not regulated in an appropriate manner, 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 that it can generate when the strategy not implemented in an ideal manner.

Let’s delve deep into the topic.

BYOD – Bring Your Own Device

The proliferation of mobile devices and technology had made it hard for organizations to adapt the employees’ trend of using their personal devices for work. It, thus, 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 the security of sensitive business data were the major concerns. BYOD not only helps organizations deliver agile and consumer-centered solutions, but also allows employees to rapidly develop and apply knowledge at work.

Today, enterprises are seeking the best methodologies that can augment BYOD approach to enhance the productivity and mitigate all the risks.

The upsides of integrating BYOD strategy in businesses

There are several benefits of using the 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 for flexibility that can enable them to instantly respond. This can be efficiently accomplished with BYOD, which can help reduce the process time and improve efficacy. Moreover, by offering freedom to employees to accomplish a task anytime and anywhere, and that too 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 device that they use for work. However, a certain initial investment is required, but in the long run, the total cost of ownership will be reduced.

3. Transform the workplace

   BYOD has lead to the confluence of virtualization, cloud computing and mobility that altogether has enabled a 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

In order to reap the benefits of the BYOD, it is imperative to understand the challenges that can create bottlenecks in your business performance and seek the 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 that are 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, there are certain risks that can hinder your performance. Therefore, it would be better to go through the common risks and keep evaluating them to ensure a smooth and flawless performance.

1. Loss of potential data

   For avoiding the 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 location. Therefore, if a device is located in 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 in case of any loss or theft of their device that 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 at the beginning.

The aforementioned tips to mitigate the risks and understand the challenges can help take your business a notch higher with BYOD strategy. Many organizations are already reaping the benefits of this strategy. This policy is a sustainable business solution which 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.

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