In this blog, we’ll get back to the basics and explain why it’s important to know about – because dismissing the BYOD phenomenon may be done at your own peril.

BYOD: What Is It?

The acronym BYOD stands for “Bring Your Own Device”. In this environment an employee comes to the company with their own phone. On the surface this is nice. Your organization does not need to provide them with a device to communicate, access email, access corporate applications, receive text messages etc. So, yes, on the outside this looks like it may be a winner. The reality can be different when you take into account the security and policy measures you need to take to make sure your mobile ecosystem stays secured and policies are followed.

BYOD: Why You Should Care

The positives of allowing your employees to bring their own devices is appealing: no equipment cost for the company, small stipend to help pay for the phone plan, what’s not to love? A lot (this is the part where you start to care). Here are some questions you should ask yourself.

What about support for the device? Is your support desk ready for the extra calls that may not be related to your corporate information? The support requests might come in as, “The corporate application is not working!” only to debug and find out that it is due to some game that was downloaded for their kids which caused a conflict with that application. It is a personal device right. So now your support cost might go up.

What if this employee leaves the company with confidential information on their device? This could lead to loss of information, loss of clients, and legal ramification due to loss of data.

Will top talent work for me if all I have to offer for connectivity is a laptop or desktop? Yes this is a concern for top companies that want to attract the best and the brightest. Most students coming out of college today are well versed in the usage of their phone and will want to use it for all their communication needs. So do you cater to them and allow them to use their own phone or do you risk losing the talent by forcing them to carry two devices?

BYOD: What Else You Should Know  

As you start to dig deeper into understanding the full picture of a BYOD environment, here are some things you need to pay attention to and get under control in your mobile ecosystem.

Establish a mobile governance team composed of HR, Legal, IT and any other stakeholders. Their job will be to create policies similar to employee code of conduct, but directed at mobile. Policy guidelines should include 1) what’s acceptable use and what is not 2) what rights you have to confidential information and how they will be put into effect in case of a layoff or resign.

Be aware of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act if you are planning to use a Mobile Device Management tool to manage your BYOD environment. Remember, texts are electronic communications so caution goes out to both sides: the user and the monitor of the managed BYOD’s.

Think about overtime implications. Recently, hourly workers have been bringing legal action when putting in more than 40 hours a week without overtime pay. Smartphones and other technology have allowed a bleed into personal time. Examples of this are replying to a corporate email here and there at 7 pm, 9pm 2am or reading a document that was sent out at 4pm around 8pm. This time adds up. Before smartphones and mobile devices, these types of items would not get addressed until the next work day.

BYOD: The Summary

The BYOD phenomenon is changing the Where, How and When workers do their jobs. It can provide a lot of good synergy on how your organization conducts business, but it also has the risk of leaving your organization open to legal challenges and cost overruns if not properly managed.

Transitioning Costs of BYOD

If your business is currently functioning in a company-owned model, understand that the transition to BYOD is labor intensive.  Employees will need to take over liability which could mean hours on the phone with carriers. TIP: Many companies enlist the help of an outsourcing company to assist with the transition to save employees time and frustration.

Who Purchases the Device?

Most employees initially already have a phone, however employers need to make sure that the device meets corporate guidelines as well as document policy around corporate dollars towards the cost of a phone. TIP: Employers may choose to buy the initial device, but if the employee loses it, it is important to stipulate that he/she is responsible to pay for the next one.

Paying for the Plan

Most employers provide a stipend for their employees in a BYOD environment. The market average is around $80 per month. Traditionally, any cost over the stipend is the employee’s responsibility. In a company-owned device environment, the business can group plans for a discount based on volume. Businesses can get an average monthly wireless bill to around $50 per user per month.  The average difference between costs of BYOD and corporate-liable is around $30 per user per month.

Understanding the Support Issue

The support of users is an area that companies can lose a lot of time and money with increased costs of BYOD. Who supports the BYOD phone? Here’s a classic example: the employee calls in and says that a corporate app is not working. Initially it may seem that this should go to the corporate support desk, however, we find out that a personal application the employee downloaded is interfering with the corporate application. The unknown personal information, apps or settings may interfere with the functioning of corporate information on the device. It is important to make clear distinctions up front about all support procedures.

BYOD is not a magical cost-cutter. There are many costs of BYOD, both tangible and intangible, from transitioning to a BYOD environment, ensuring the device meets corporate guidelines, paying for the plan, and ongoing support. An effective BYOD policy will address security, clearly define allowable apps, and outline support processes to keep an employee as productive as possible. Understanding and setting policy around employee/employer responsibility will put you on the right track towards effectively managing your BYOD environment.

Reynaldo Lyles is a recognized expert in mobility thought leadership, new industry standards in mobile device management and compliance, and the Mobility Practice Leader for Renodis Telecom Management .

     BYOD image via Shutterstock

Employees are more mobile than ever – they can work from just about anywhere they choose, and need less and less equipment in order to be productive.  In addition to mobility, the convenience of using fewer devices to manage personal and professional tasks is fast becoming the norm for many employees, preferring one mobile device suited for all needs.  Organizations are more challenged than ever to control, track and manage the amalgamation of mobile devices, service plans, and the ever expanding ocean of apps. Because of this, wireless expense management has become far more complicated than in decades past, when there were far fewer devices and plans to manage and where it was fairly common for the enterprise to adopt a top-down approach to wireless expense management.

BYOD, or ‘bring your own device’ is a program whereby employees utilize their own mobile devices to perform their day to day duties, while granting them access to necessary corporate information.  Email, calendars, and required apps are made available to employees via their mobile devices, eliminating the need to be tied to their office or requiring them to use company-issued equipment.

Because of the recent consumerization of IT, the need for an effective BYOD policy is more evident than ever, as many employees use their own devices and laptops for work regardless of whether or not they receive support from their IT departments.  An effective and strictly enforced BYOD policy will help mitigate the security risks this type of usage evokes.  While BYOD programs have certainly enhanced mobility’s value to an organization, it has without question complicated the issue of productivity.

The arguments behind the BYOD trend suggest that employees are more productive by using their own device, cost is reduced because companies do not pay for the devices, and corporate IT departments do not have to devote resources toward the management of these devices[1].

However, when faced with the fact that more than 60% of companies do not even track the personal usage for their employees’ devices, productivity becomes objectionable[2]. Thus, employees could be claiming any number of calls or minutes as reimbursable expenses and management wouldn’t be the wiser.  If left unchecked, this lack of verification could have a cumulative, detrimental economic affect to the corporation.

In addition to the expense management issues, BYOD policies can expose a plethora of security liabilities often overlooked by management.  In the unlikely event of a lawsuit where phone records need to be subpoenaed, the possibility of acquiring them is slim if an employee is using his or her own device.  Since most companies reimburse employees for their business-related mobile usage, the likelihood of possible record falsification exists.  In addition, the process of reimbursing an employee is a soft cost that needs to be added onto the actual cost of the reimbursable expense.  According to a recent Aberdeen Group study, cellular telephone monthly reimbursement averages $70 per month, which is only $10 less than what average companies pay for wireless expenses[3].  In addition, most reimbursements occur monthly through expense report processing, which costs an organization on average $29 to process, causing the expenditure to climb over the industry average.

To ensure productivity amongst employees who adhere to BYOD, corporations require strict and specific policies.  A well thought out BYOD policy must address the issue of security.  Whether they like it or not, employees should be required to create screen-lock passwords on any personal device that will be used to access corporate data.  With just a swipe of the screen, an employee could unknowingly be exposing sensitive, confidential corporate information.

The issue of IT support for employee-owned devices can be complicated.   This is where productivity can be stalled completely if an employee has an issue that he or she cannot resolve on his or her own.  If it is a network or connectivity issue, will there be corporate IT support?  What happens in the case of damaged hardware or broken equipment issues, or if the device is lost or stolen?  Will IT support those types of problems, or is the employee required to resolve it on his own?  Can the employee count on management to provide a ‘loaner’ device while their own is being repaired, or is the employee essentially out of commission until the original device is fixed?  While these questions are debated, productivity will universally suffer.  Not only is the employee affected, the IT department and management will need to devote time to fixing the issue so the employee can get back to work as quickly as possible.

To what degree will the corporation support the device in a BYOD environment?  Since the combination of personal and professional programs and apps will exist on the device, what happens if a personal app creates a problem that interferes with the ability to access email and other company information?  An effective BYOD policy should outline what apps will be allowed and which will be banned due to any potential security or legal risks whatsoever.  What if a poorly written instant messaging client steals your organization’s address book? These are serious questions to address in a BYOD policy[5].  Who owns the apps, programs, information and the device?  Ownership becomes cumbersome in a situation where the device is lost or stolen and corporate IT needs to wipe the device clean of all information – including the employee’s personally stored information.  Additionally, if an employee leaves or is terminated, who owns the data?  If a BYOD policy is adopted, it must be clearly defined that the employee agrees to the consequences if data security is jeopardized in any way.

The question of whether or not productivity is enhanced with a BYOD policy is not easily answered.  In an environment that has a strict policy surrounding the usage of personal devices is much better poised for increased productivity than those corporations with loosely enforced guidelines.  An effective BYOD policy will address security, clearly define allowable apps, and outline support processes to keep an employee as productive as possible.