These days, it seems like mobility is a concept that’s on every business leaders’ mind. Naturally, these leaders have a lot of questions about mobility and how it affects their business: are the benefits worth the potential risks? How can they manage their mobile implementations to make things go as smoothly as possible?
There’s the one question that might be the most confusing of all: what role should bring your own device (BYOD) play in a mobility strategy?
BYOD for SMBs
These questions are particularly pressing for small and midsize businesses. Adopting a mobility strategy is just as important for these businesses as it is for large enterprises. Because of their limited resources, SMBs are more likely to feel the pain points associated with mobility. These pain points include things like cost, deployment options, security, usability, training, and support. Managing these pain points is important for businesses no matter what the size, but for SMBs, it can be absolutely critical.
When SMBs stop to consider whether or not a BYOD policy is right for them, it’s important for them to realize BYOD has its pros and cons. It can help address certain mobility pain points (such as price and usability) but at the same time, it also makes other pain points worse (such as security, deployment options and support).
There is no one-size-fits-all answer that can help a business determine whether or not BYOD is a good idea; each business must analyze their specific situation and come to a conclusion based on a careful weighing of the evidence at hand.
Weighing the pros and cons of BYOD
According to Gartner, half of all companies will require BYOD by the year 2017. {Tweet This}####
Pros of BYOD
First of all, there’s the cost factor.
These past few years are the first time that a vast majority of employees have owned consumer devices powerful enough to be used as serious business tools. If employees already own a device, why not allow them to use it for business purposes?
Additionally, there’s the fact that employees like BYOD.
When they grow accustomed to using a certain mobile device in their personal lives, being able to use it for business purposes as well just feels right. It removes the potential they’ll have to learn a secondary device they don’t like only because the company thrust it upon them.
Since BYOD can save money and increase employee satisfaction, it seems like something of a no-brainer. However, the cons of BYOD are real, and all businesses should stop to consider them before creating their BYOD strategies.
Cons of BYOD
The most obvious concern when it comes to BYOD is security.
If employees use their own devices for work purposes, they may be carrying a treasure trove of important business data with them everywhere they go. Especially if the business apps store information on the device itself rather than requiring a connection tot he cloud. There is no guarantee that employees will be careful with these devices, either. Coming up with a strong security policy is an important part of any good BYOD strategy.
When employees use their own devices, it can also be challenging to maintain standards for things like password strength and anti-malware programs. This lack of standards creates more security concerns and places a greater burden on IT.
Final verdict
Contrary to popular belief, BYOD is not something that’s guaranteed to provide positive business outcomes. A company can only be successful implementing BYOD if they take the time to account for and mitigate the potential challenges.
With the right strategy in place, you can allow employees to use their own devices without putting your business at risk. As a result, you’ll be able to take advantage of the benefits of BYOD without falling victim to the drawbacks.