Is it time to open your doors to BYOD?

Back in 2013, Gartner predicted that by midway through 2017 half of all employees will be required to provide their own devices for work purposes.

Seeing as we’re already several months into 2017, how well has this prediction held up? Well, it would seem that Gartner were conservative in their own estimates, hitting that target in 2016.

“More than half of employees who used smartphones at work rely solely on their personally owned smartphones,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal research analyst at Gartner in a November 2016 media release.

Given that the adoption of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) has outpaced the industry experts, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of allowing personal devices into the workspace?

Advantages of BYOD

Incorporating personal devices into the workplace offers two major benefits: Increased productivity and reduced cost, according to Conde Nast Digital.

By building a more flexible workforce, combining cloud technologies with personal devices, employees can be more productive both inside and outside of the office.

Without having to supply employees with their own laptops or smartphones, companies are also saving money, letting them invest in technologies such as cloud computing that can further improve collaboration between BYOD devices.

Challenges of BYOD

Merging personal and business data together will always bring with it some risk. PwC’s BYOD survey identified the following challenged to businesses:

• Users sharing mobile devices (containing sensitive information) with friends and family.
• People using their devices for illegitimate purposes, such as illegal downloading and sharing of files.
• Users not operating or maintaining their devices in a secured way – jail-breaking, downloading illicit apps or not using security features.
• People connecting their phones to unsecured networks such as the ones found in cafes, airports and hotels.

Incorporating personal devices into the workplace offers two major benefits: Increased productivity and reduced cost.

However, these risks can be easily dismissed with the right management. By regularly reviewing how employees use their personal devices, improving security and access through two-step verification, blacklisting malicious apps and employing robust security measures, businesses can help prevent the accidental misuse of corporate information on a personal device.

Not everyone is ready to welcome personal devices into the workplace. However, there is still a need for businesses to have access to mobile devices in order to stay flexible in today’s competitive environment. Leasing devices might be the way to go.

To find out more about how Imagetext Integrated Solutions can provide you with the IT solutions to meet your need, get in touch with our team today.