More and more organizations are adopting the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model as a way to increase mobility in the digital workplace. A recent study by Gartner predicts that 70 percent of mobile employees will conduct work on their own smart devices by 2018 — a trend that will make a huge impact on the IT industry.
When companies combine a BYOD mobile environment with cloud computing, it brings new ease of access and efficiency to the digital workplace. Users are able to work from any location, accessing business information from their preferred mobile devices. No wonder some organizations have launched BYOD programs that give employees an allowance to purchase their preferred devices (as long as they meet certain support criteria).
Still not sure if BYOD is a good choice for your company? Here are five benefits of adopting this model for your digital workplace:
- A user-friendly experience for employees: One of the overarching benefits of BYOD is that you’re not asking employees to work with an unfamiliar interface. Allowing people to bring in their personal devices improves ease of use across the organization.
- Improved workflow efficiency: Smartphones and tablets are more effective than a desktop or laptop computer for many tasks, especially when employees are traveling or working at remote sites. And these personal devices may be more advanced than the tools your organization currently provides. Opening the doors to employee devices helps increase efficiency and keeps business processes moving forward in the digital workplace.
- Flexible management: When you implement mobile device management (MDM) and information rights management (IRM) technology, your organization gains greater flexibility, because the organization isn’t limited to one provider for the duration of a service contract. This flexibility is especially beneficial for small businesses, allowing different employees to choose the best device for them.
- Increasing productivity: A side benefit of BYOD is that it makes employees feel empowered to work from anywhere. When it’s easy to use one’s own mobile device or laptop, people tend to work more and be more productive. For example, many people now check work email regularly when they’re out of the office — and even when they’re on vacation.
- Shifting responsibility from IT to employees: BYOD shifts much of the mobile burden away from the employer. When employees are responsible for maintaining devices and upgrading them over time, they take better care of the equipment. When people are paying for their own smartphones or tablets, they’re likely to use them more and take better care of them. Even with the cost of implementing MDM and IRM platforms, this model should reduce your IT investment in terms of maintenance and hardware procurement.
True, BYOD does have tradeoffs, in that it raises complex issues around data security. But the increasing popularity of this mobile approach suggests that the benefits of BYOD outweigh whatever risks it could introduce — especially when you take the time to plan a mobile security strategy and implement new technologies that allow you to manage data access and BYOD users.
