How many of your employees use their own devices to do their jobs? Chances are high that some — or many, or even all — use their own laptops, tablets, cell phones or even wearable tech gadgets on the job.

Which means it’s time for you to get serious about implementing a policy for handling this ever-expanding world of BYOD — Bring Your Own Device.

BYOD Continues to Grow

BYOD is a thriving trend in the workplace. To put this issue into perspective, it helps to realize the BYOD market is on target for huge growth in the next few years — jumping from $30 billion in 2014 to $367 billion by 2022. And it’s not just larger companies that are driving that growth. Global market research shows that small businesses are expected to increase their BYOD usage by 20 percent during that time period.

Research studies have found that 59 percent of organizations already let their employees use their own tech for work purposes, while another 13 percent are considering following suit.

What’s more, many companies are already dependent on their employees’ ability to use their own personal devices to access business apps. And with the continuing growth of IOT (Internet of Things) and the expanding array of wearable tech, workers will have even more options for the devices they can bring to work.

Translation: There are already a lot of workers accessing their company’s data over their smartphones and laptops, and the number will only continue to increase — which means you need to pay attention to how it’s handled.

BYOD Benefits Employees and Their Companies

This is happening in no small part because there are many benefits for the businesses that allow their employees to use their own tech:

• It saves money: When employees bring their own equipment, companies can lower costs for equipment and service plans.
• It frees up your IT staff: They don’t have as many fires to put out, so they can focus on the bigger issues necessary for your business.
• It makes employees happy: They’re using equipment they chose and know how to use. And they don’t have to carry around two phones.
• It makes them better employees: Studies have found workers using their own devices are more productive and save time.

BYOD Also Brings Risks

But all these devices accessing all that information means there are inherent risks to allowing employees to use their own devices at work:

• Security threats, when employees don’t keep anti-virus or malware protections up-to-date
• Misplaced devices, which could be lost or stolen
• Unsecured Wi-Fi connections, when employees are not connected at work
• Employee separation, when someone leaves the company, but the business data may still be on the device or accessible from it

The Reality: BYOD Is Here to Stay

All of those pros and cons notwithstanding, BYOD has become standard operation procedure for many workplaces. So every business — whether it allows BYOD or not — should implement a strategy for dealing with this issue.

There are a lot of critical questions to answer here:

• What will be acceptable use of these devices?
• Should particular brands or devices be required?
• What kind of IT support will the company provide?
• What will be the reimbursement policy for using personal devices for business purposes?
• And this biggie: How will you keep your data safe?

Every business should cultivate a culture of security, which is where an IT managed services provider comes in. Our expert engineers can structure the right kind of BYOD plan so your staff can do its job with a secure information system.

Since 1995, Manassas Park, VA-based V2 Systems has employed local systems administrators, network engineers, security consultants, help desk technicians and partnering companies to meet a wide range of clients’ IT needs, from research, to implementation, to maintenance. Concentrate on your VISION…We’ll handle the TECHNOLOGY!