Like most other IT Admins, I’ve worked a lot with personal devices in a corporate environment, and it’s fascinating that there hasn’t been a right-way or wrong-way approach. Nothing is cut and dry with BYOD. Because cell phones have become mobile workstations, they’re outliers from a corporate data standpoint. In this blog, I’m going to lay out some facts you should consider when applying a BYOD strategy.
Deploying a BYOD policy seems like the easiest way a business can manage cell phones. Employees receive a stipend and can use any phone they want. It’s an easy concept: users are happy to choose their own phone, family plans save money…etc. But this is where it gets complicated: how do you allow corporate data on a personal device? How can you control that data from being lost, stolen, or replicated?
There are plenty of MDM (Mobile Device Management) solutions that can effectively answer these questions, but how do you draw the line drawn between corporate security (Big Brother) and personal privacy (Mine!)? So many companies are struggling with this concept now because, believe it or not, people email before 9AM, and after 5PM. Users are more mobile than ever, and from an efficiency standpoint, corporate email configured on your personal device is one of the most productive tools an employee has.
How do we implement the best practices to satisfy the user and the business owner? The most important key to successful BYOD is corporate policy. Figure out work habits and educate users about the risks associated with data on mobile devices. Work with IT, HR, and Legal to spell out exactly what is important to your company. This gets EVERYONE on the same page. Once your plan is tailored to your liking, add it to the employee handbook. A few things to consider… Does this include adding MDM to devices? What if an employee leaves — how do you pull the data from their device? What is the process if your phone is lost? Every phone should have a passcode!
BYOD can provide companies with major benefits, from employee satisfaction to reduced expenses. Creating and maintaining a successful BYOD is the tricky part.