Bring your own device (BYOD) is a trend sweeping businesses that want their employees to be able to work from any location. It opens the door to spending less on equipment and maintenance while expanding the workforce and driving more sales. Allowing staff members to use their personal communication devices presents a mix of advantages and concerns that can be addressed with the right mobility management software.
How BYOD Provides Flexibility
Whether a firm has under ten or over thousands of employees, BYOD policies save companies huge expenses on hardware. More cautious organizations, however, take the approach of giving employees a list of acceptable devices to use for both compatibility and security reasons. Other companies purchase a variety of devices from which employees can select. Employees often feel more empowered when they are allowed to choose the device with which they are most familiar or comfortable.
Countering Security Risks with Mobility Management
Management must be aware that unmonitored mobility can lead to security breaches that increase the risk of data loss or damaged files. BYOD also opens the door to issues of not meeting government regulations or industry standards. These concerns can be resolved by using a mobility management solution, which comprises the strategy, platform, and processes that merge enterprise software with mobile devices.
Regardless of whether the devices are supplied by the company or by employees, this integration offers the enterprise and its workforce more control and protection against security breaches. Supervisors are able to monitor and manage user access with the use of encryption and identity certificates. They can also decide on security, malware, and antivirus software.
Flexible Management Software Features
High quality mobility management platforms are flexible enough to provide a variety of deployment methods, making them useful for either local or cloud-based infrastructures. Businesses more concerned about future growth and scalability can benefit from cloud-based systems. Cloud providers also handle the more tedious tasks such as data backup and recovery.
Mobility management offers cross-platform options for controlling any type of device, operating system, or machine model. This capability is important since it eliminates the time and cost associated with employees being forced to use one brand when they are more productive with another. Furthermore, this platform allows administrators to manage all devices on a network at once, which is a simpler alternative to managing company-enforced equipment. It’s merely a matter of denying access to all devices except those that the company approves.
Why BYOD Is Worth Considering
One of the biggest advantages to BYOD is that it frees employees from their desktops. This ability is powerful for sales representatives who can communicate with the office while meeting with clients in the field. It’s also useful for connecting physicians and nurses on different floors of a hospital. It can also free up office space or even justify moving to a smaller physical location, which further cuts costs.
BYOD does, however, raise the risk of exposure to malware and other forms of cyber crime. Another concern is that sensitive information can get leaked if it ends up on unsecured mobile devices. Fortunately, administrators can use automation to set mobility management policies that protect company data. It’s important for decision makers to weigh the pros and cons to determine if BYOD makes economic and practical sense.