Bring Your Own Device, or "BYOD" is the latest buzz word in human resource management. If you are interested in improving business communication, it will be impossible not to consider BYOD in the coming year.
BYOD Trending
Apple or Android? All are welcome here! (Photo: David Dickinson )
More companies welcome the use of personal mobile devices for work. This practice replaces the company issued phones and tablets for many employees.
Citrix reports that what most companies informally supported some form of BYOD, and projects that 94% of companies have a formal BYOD policy in 2013. This is consistent with the overall increase in mobile devices as a staple for employee communication. The growing demand for remote work contracts feeds the need for a more mobile workforce independent.
The benefits of BYOD policies for businesses are clear. Professionals who use their own devices are proven to feel more flexible and connected to their work. In fact, research shows that employees who regularly use mobile devices put in about 240 hours a year.
Transition Issues
With the positive effects, there are also challenges related to the transition to BYOD. Many companies find that the diversity of mobile interfaces employees can actually slow down productivity. When issued corporate devices generally create a uniform technological, personally owned devices vary between different brands and user interfaces.
Some applications are not supported on all platforms, making it difficult to share information and ideas through personal devices. What happens when I'm with a team of developers, and I try to open Adobe Flash-powered presentation of my colleague on a tablet does not support Flash? These little nuisances can really slow a company down.
There is also the issue of security. BYOD puts more commercially sensitive information in storage devices that are not controlled by the company. A 2012 report by Symantec shows that almost half of the information shared by businesses today is stored outside the company's firewall. Most of this information is available via the less secure mobile devices. It is also often accessed using remote Wi-Fi locations.
Stay safe with BYOD
The new security risks BYOD should not be a deal breaker. With a few precautions, companies can enjoy the benefits of this new trend, while remaining secure.
The first step is to create a clear and consistent BYOD policy. Let him know that even if the devices are owned by employees, all information stored in the enterprise and shared by these devices still belongs to the company.
To avoid compatibility problems, managers can also create a set of official business applications to use for file sharing, security and communication. Especially with security applications, it is important to remain consistent.
The use of a VPN company-wide service can greatly improve the security of BYOD companies. A service like VPN switch can be used on all mobile devices, to diversity. It creates a secure virtual tunnel, extending the enterprise security beyond phones belonging to the company and tablets.
For more information on how VPN works, please see SwitchVPN services.
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