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The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Revolution |
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September 20, 2011
Companies in the past have provided a limited selection of laptops and smartphones that range from bland to boring while employees have secretly wanted to bring in their own fast, stylish, and customizable smartphones, netbooks, or iPads. But in the last three years, IT departments are no longer able to force a particular set of mobile solutions on end users. Employees often expect to be able to use their smartphones and iPads and synchronize them with their work equipment to increase productivity and mobility.
There are plenty of reasons why "BYOD" is becoming more and more popular. Since employees now expect to bring in their personal mobile devices, employee satisfaction has skyrocketed, especially within the younger, on-the-go workers. They see their own personal laptops or cell phones as a part of their identity and lifestyle. Employees who don't have this privilege are now demanding it.
Along with this fairly new BYOD initiative comes huge technical advances. There is no more worry about transferring documents from Mac to Windows as Apple now allows Windows to virtually run on Macs, making PCs and their apps much easier to manage. Some companies have even built sophisticated mobile apps for searching the corporate directory, locating fellow employees, and scheduling meetings...the kind of functions that aren't built into the mail and calendar apps that work with iOS and Android. Companies can also look into building a mobile configuration into its document management system, company folders and libraries, which gives employees the ability to see and edit their documents from any device. These technical advances enable more and more workers to work from home, on-the-go, or from remote offices.
One would think that this would cost a ton, but it doesn't. Instead of huge, old-school computers that could cost more than $1,000, laptops, cell phones, iPads and netbooks nowadays are much less expensive than they used to be, are better quality, and easier to manage than computers back in the day. Overall, the BYOD policy usually results in upfront equipment savings and decreased support costs.
The BYOD workforce requires some changes though. Some of these changes can be seen in employees learning how to properly manage their devices. IT departments need to make sure their tools can do things like enforce strong passwords and wipe data from lost devices among other important tasks.
The BYOD incentive in the workplace has come a long way. If more companies allow their employees to use their personal mobile devices, it could have huge benefits on user productivity and decreased support costs.
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