Is BYOD right for your business?

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is popular among businesses that need their workers to have constant access to data, but don’t want the hassle of both an office and a personal smartphone. BYOD can help your business attract new employees, who will see your company as forward thinking. It can also save your company money, as you don’t have to pay for expensive phone contracts, and it can make your workers more efficient as they have total access to office apps and data. However, how can you be sure that BYOD is the best option for your business?

You can judge if BYOD will be of value for your company by calculating the cost over the savings. Costs may include developing a dedicated company app, data security costs, subscriptions to cloud services, or downtime through lost devices. Savings will include the cost of the phones, contracts, insurances and accessories.

Once you can set up a business case for BYOD, then you will need to create guidelines and policies to make sure that workers secure their data and business apps, if a phone is lost or stolen; this will include simple things like ensuring phones are locked and pass code protected. When the BYOD scheme is up and running, you will also need to take measurements to make sure that the savings, efficiencies or other goals you intend to reach are being met.

An end-to-end IT policy will help manage BYOD schemes. Issues such as what happens when a worker leaves the company need to be ready in advance. While that may take time, implementing a BYOD scheme will save your IT team or staff from having to check if workers are making inappropriate use of your systems.

With most cloud services making data accessible across PCs, mobiles and tablets, starting a BYOD scheme has never been easier. That means your workers will have the data they need to hand, where ever they are. Improved mobile apps also mean they can work with data, be it documents, spreadsheets, designs or databases, not just refer to them.

With BYOD never more attractive for businesses big and small, see how we can help your company set up a scheme.

Is BYOD right for your business?

Mobile World Congress increases BYOD options

This year’s Mobile World Congress is on in Barcelona this week. It sees the likes of Microsoft and its Windows Phone, plus the many Android device makers, announcing new or improved mid-range devices that pack in many features of what were formerly high-end, expensive models. More memory, better processors and bigger screens make these more usable and attractive as a working device. Also, the recent range of business software launches for mobiles means that more people are tempted to try them out for bring your own device (BYOD) schemes.

As a business, having your workers able to use documents that are stored in the cloud, business contacts, and address emails wherever they are can be a big benefit. It saves investing in laptops or tablets, gets issues resolved faster and with data stored in the cloud and protected by password or fingerprint ID, there is less risk of them losing their phone and having valuable data go missing.

While Windows Phones are all prepped for business, users can use all Microsoft’s apps and storage features with the current Windows Phone 8.1. Sony, LG, Motorola and ZTE, among others, have a huge range of Android devices and they all support Google’s Lollipop Android 5.0. Lollipop in turn runs Samsung’s Knox, a business security feature to protect data stored on user’s own phones. Apple has its own security features for business, and Microsoft’s popular apps are now available for both iOS and Android.

This means that it is now safer for workers to use business data on their own phones, and the apps make checking documents and performing light revisions almost as painless as on a desktop (especially with a larger-screen device). For larger businesses, solutions like Hypori’s ACE platform, which was built with support from the American Department of Defense, help protect business data by separating the physical mobile device (no matter the brand and OS) from any sensitive applications and data.

These latest moves means there is less reason for businesses to be averse to the idea of BYOD, and should see the increasingly mobile workforce come of age for knowledge workers, sales forces and marketers who have been eager to try it out.

Mobile World Congress increases BYOD options

Cheap Android tablets increase BYOD risk

A bring your own device (BYOD) strategy can ease the burden on business IT departments by allowing demanding users to supply, and maintain, their own equipment. With increasingly tribal users strongly preferring Apple, Windows, or Android as their computing platform, bring your own device can end the need for the IT Manager to be one who makes the decision on who has what.

Any sensible BYOD strategy requires that users add anti-virus, of course, and some still restrict the use of some platforms to ensure compatibility between users’ chosen devices and core IT systems. But few BYOD strategies dictate the quality of devices that must be used. For every user who supplements their BYOD budget to make sure they have the latest and greatest gadgets, there will be a user who is looking to economise.

A cheap Android tablet is one area where a user can add an extra device to their portfolio without breaking the bank. Sadly, the openness of the Android operating system not only helps to bring down prices but can also increase the risk to users. What might look like a “stock” installation of Android can be anything but, as a recent study by BlueBox Labs revealed.

In the study, BlueBox Labs found a range of serious security problems were present on the devices that they tested “out of the box”. With no provision for upgrades or “over the air” updates on these budget tablets, these problems are never going to be fixed. Vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed, FakeID, Futux, and Masterkey were all detected.

Some of the tablets were also being shipped with the malicious software protection (the setting that prevents software from sources other than the Google Play store from being installed) switched off. Whilst this is a setting that some users might use to install in-house software, it isn’t something that should be left switched on or be there by default without the user’s knowledge.

The issues didn’t end there. Some budget tablets were found to be “rooted” out of the box, compromising Android’s security layer and making things easier for hackers. Custom versions of Android were also found, some with security features completely removed for no discernible reason.

The final blow against the budget tablets comes in BlueBox Lab’s claims to have found dubious software on some devices, including custom versions of “Angry Birds” that collected extra user data.

If you’re currently allowing Android tablets as part of your BYOD strategy, it may be time to make sure that your users are checking their devices are secure, or maybe to offer a list of recommended devices that are proven to be safe.

Cheap Android tablets increase BYOD risk