Leverage BYOD correctly otherwise get left behind

Bring Your Own What?

Historically speaking, businesses have often held the upper hand with IT. However, in the last five years a huge shift has occurred and faster, more powerful devices are increasingly being used at home. This has led to the enterprise reassessing the relationship between workforces and the IT department when it comes to deciding who should provide day-to-day technology.

Business focused applications and powerful computers are no longer static entities stuck in the office. Individuals have come to expect mobile devices to facilitate the fast, easy access of information wherever they are and at any time.

The average person now expects their employer to mimic the environment they are used to – easy to use, always accessible and unrestrictive. For the average IT manager, this expectation can be extremely problematic. From a management, security and cost-control point of view, if approached in the wrong way it can be disastrous.

What is BYOD?

With wireless internet now as pervasive as its wired counterpart, workers want to collaborate and communicate wherever they wish. This consumerisation is causing a migration of technology.

Wireless devices are in constant motion between the office and home. How can businesses manage such a dispersed technology landscape? Also, why should businesses think to leverage this power-shift when such risks exist?

For one, there are immediate cost advantages and productivity benefits from a mobile, flexible global workforce. BYOD also fits perfectly with the move to a less fragmented IT ecosystem. Those forward-thinking businesses that have recognised the advantages of unified communications are ready for BYOD.

If a workforce is comfortable with the technology it is using because of home familiarity, it will make faster decisions, therefore yielding large-scale efficiency benefits across the whole organisation.

Obviously some questions do remain – knowing where sensitive data is / who is accessing devices, what happens when equipment needs repairing and if lost, who pays for replacement, are all concerns that accompany BYOD.

On top of that, the need to provide a wireless converged network across every corporate site means businesses have to reassess future infrastructure planning, existing applications, budgets and security policies to accommodate the cultural/cost benefits that go hand in hand with BYOD.

Unified BYOD Is The Solution

Therefore, getting a BYOD policy right is a balancing game helping a workforce’s desire to work in a more natural way suited to the modern marketplace and one that overall is beneficial to the organisation.

With the right network management, strategic thinking and a supportive communications provider providing the technology, advice and training for BYOD, both the enterprise and staff can receive the benefits they desire from this business-changing development.

Contact us to find out more.