BYOD Considerations

BYOD. Bring your own disaster? Bring your own disruption? 

The fact is, when it comes to bring your own device, resistance isfutile, and most of the concerns we hear about can be remediated with a little planning.In reality, BYOD is not a technology challenge so much as it is a businessquestion, and I think that fact is overlooked far too often due to theoverwhelming noise in the space regarding security fears, viruses, CONTROL,etc.  

The purpose of IT teams is to enable your people to be productivewhile protecting the security and data integrity of the business. BYOD is not anew set of rules, just a slight addition of complexity. So, the question I poseis 'what are your business needs and how will BYOD impact them, positively andnegatively?' If we assume technology challenges are, and forever will be areality, then we can move on and simply figure out the impact of people usingtheir own devices. Looking at BYOD from this perspective opens up the chance toreally look at how the use of personal devices will impact your employees andyour customers. 

Examples:

1.  Willyour BYOD policy replace equipment broken on the job, and if not, are you limitingthe quality of devices your employees may be able to afford and will thisimpact productivity?
2.  WillBYOD impact your long term customers ability to connect with your businessshould a key employee leave with their device (and of course their phonenumber)?
3.  Willyou potentially create negative scenarios by having to impose what may beviewed as draconian requirements on personal devices, leaving employees feelingunhappy?
4.  Willyou be less likely to uphold basic security protocals because of the potentialnegative impact on an employee's personal data (such as doing a required remotewipe of device)?
5. Arethere reasons you would NOT want your customers to reach out to ex employeesshould they leave with their phones and phone numbers? 

There are many more examples that may be relevant to yourbusiness, but I think you get the point. Item #2 is a big concern in mybusiness, where consistency of contact information can be the differencebetween a customer getting support in an emergency when they need it versushaving to hunt down new information. That could reduce our ability to keepcustomers productive, therefore BYOD could have a negative impact on customerservice as long held contact phone numbers move outside of the company. Also,in some businesses having customers retain contacts with ex employees couldcreate competitive issues that would otherwise be contained should the contactphone numbers belong to the business, and be consistent. 

All business concerns, not technical ones. All things to thinkabout outside of the worries of the IT group. 

Just a few more points of consideration in your continued journey to experience

Happy Computing

Richard Brunke