Jumping in to the trend of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) implementation may not prove to be a good idea especially if a company has little or no knowledge about it. The IT manager for the company considering BYOD must think first about the potential challenges that may be involved during the implementation process.

To understand the potential challenges which may be encountered, here are a few BYOD issues to watch out for:

Costs

Business is business. Therefore, it is very important to consider the expenses involved throughout the process. How will the payment be done? The employees themselves may shoulder the costs in bringing their own devices. However, what about the data plans involved? Who will pay for it? Some companies provide a subsidy for this project. This will impact the finances of a company and must be accounted for.

Employers may choose to reimburse a certain amount, or perhaps a fixed percentage from their bill. Some may also pay only for work related phone calls. The challenge comes in with accounting for data usage. At times this may be difficult, and may even be impossible. Some companies implement corporate plans in order to quantify usage.

Policy

Creating and enforcing a BYOD policy should provide answers to the most common BYOD questions. This means implementation of policies, education, agreements, training, and awareness programs. A company should be able to offer both acceptable use and security policies. The agreement should be able to reflect the understanding of policies, procedures, as well as the tools in use. The training and awareness programs can be used, not just to inform potential users, but also to educate them on the importance of adhering to procedures and policies. Appropriate disciplinary actions should also be highlighted in order to protect not just the employee, but also the entire organization.

Management

Aside from the financial side, BYOD also influences the operations and management side of an organization. While it is generally accepted that mobile device management is one of the best methods to manage devices, it may pose certain problems when it comes to personal devices. This is because certain device configurations, usage tracking, policy enforcement, and how the data will be managed should be used and implemented accordingly. All of these factors need to be considered properly especially when dealing with enterprise owned data. The devices, as well as the applications to be used in accessing data should carefully be selected and considered.

Security

Security is, by far, the biggest challenge an organization has to experience when implementing BYOD. An IT manager who is not at all concerned regarding the information available will never do well with the management of this structure. This calls for the need of extreme care and thorough focus. Certain steps need to be taken in order to enhance security, even though it might really be challenging to implement them. The challenges can prove to be a mixture of technical, cultural, and operational lines.

Yes, there are a lot of advantages with this program. However, it would be wrong to jump in BYOD implementation without a series of careful consideration of the evident challenges at hand. With the steady movement of technology, there is a possibility that it will easily dominate the IT enterprise, particularly the client/access end. Though there are certain challenges, adept preparation is the key for successful implementation. Some of the challenges may simply be operational and cultural; it is not purely technological. Education and thorough analysis of the effects of this technology in an organization are very important. As a matter of fact, its importance is equal to the tools being implemented all throughout.

Michelle Patterson is excited with the new technologies that are threatening to change the way we stay in touch and communicate, particular in business. She works with companies that are introducing these technologies to make understanding them easy for regular people.