Bring Your Own Device is the latest trend to sweep across the business world, offering companies a way to cut costs while providing flexibility to their employees. While some may argue that the program comes with some headaches, most will counter by saying it offers plenty of benefits that outweigh them. After all, by allowing your employees to use their own devices at work, you’ll see returns in terms of overall productivity and morale, not to mention increased savings. Here are eight ways to adopt BYOD into your business, making sure it’s safe to use.
Set Up a Strong Password Policy
Once you implement BYOD into your business, you’re going to have many users using their devices on your network. Because BYOD allows employees to take their devices anywhere and access work information from home, it’s crucial that anyone in the network have a strong password. To make sure of this, instate a strong password policy and require that users change their password periodically. Although it can be a hassle, everyone involved will understand the urgency of this issue.
Define Your Support Policy
The BYOD program could eventually cause you to spend more time supporting users’ devices than you have to give. When drafting a support policy, make sure to take all devices into account. The policy should specify which platforms you support and to what extent. It should also state that your company isn’t financially responsible for users’ devices and that it won’t support devices that don’t follow the outlined guidelines.
Additionally, it’s important to talk with your BYOD carrier to establish any other limits and/or set any other policy guidelines. These can vary between providers, so it’s particularly important to consider this when you’re looking to implement one of these initiatives. Since Blackberry is one of the more popular carriers offering this program for businesses, you’ll likely want to check out its BYOD services and solutions for business owners.
Require Device Registration
No matter the circumstance, every device that connects to the business’ network needs to get registered. When registering employees’ devices, be sure to obtain the device type, carrier, MAC address, and the name of who’s using it. Once you have this information on file, you increase the chances of tracking down users who are abusing the BYOD program and putting the business at risk. With MAC addresses, you can block offending users from accessing the network.
Limit Supported Platforms
Once you open the floodgates to BYOD, you can end up having to support Windows, OS X, iOS, Linux, Android, ChromeOS, Blackberry, and any other platforms. This can put a burden on your IT staff that’s unnecessary and a waste of company time. As a solution, choose which platforms you want to support and make it known to all users on the network. If users decide to bring in unsupported platforms, don’t allow them to get access to your company’s network.
Educate Your Employees
When you implement a program like BYOD, you need to educate your employees on how it works so they don’t risk any security breaches. One of the first things they should know is how important it is that they keep their anti-virus and anti-malware updated. They also need to know how to keep their data secure, making sure they never use an unsecured network. It’s better to spend time on this now, before it becomes a bigger problem and takes up more time later.
Expand Your Infrastructure
Since your users are going to take up a lot more bandwidth, you need to think about making your wireless connection more powerful. Instead of dealing with slow connections and a bottleneck on the network, make sure that you’re using new equipment that can handle your company’s load. When buying routers, avoid consumer grade ones. Also, make sure you have a big enough incoming pipe that allows for extra traffic so users from other locations can get access to the network.
Create a Company Cloud
Instead of allowing remote users to use their BYOD devices while accessing your company’s network, you can create a remote cloud that lets those same users easily and safely access the files they to work on outside of the LAN. If you don’t want to create your own cloud, consider using Dropbox or SpiderOak. With a business-class subscription to either of these clouds, you can provide instant access to users who are working outside of the company’s offices.
Adopting and embracing a new program isn’t always easy, but with so many advantages to benefit from companies won’t have a tough time implementing BYOD into their workflow. Before going live, make sure that anyone using the network is held accountable and that you prepare for any future troubles.
Has your company implemented BYOD already? What does it work? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.