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As you grow your business, you learn to explore creative and economical ways to handle your business’s growing needs. For example, outsourcing your IT requirements to an IT support provider in San Antonio gives you access to expert support for a flat monthly fee. You may have also considered a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy that allows your employees to use their own devices for work. Before adopting such a program, it’s important to consider the associated benefits and challenges.
Benefits of BYOD
Managed IT services allow you to cut back on the need to have your own IT department. BYOD takes this a step further because you can reduce the number of devices your business has to buy by having employees use their personal devices. If you are just starting out and have just a handful of people on staff, buying business laptops and computers may be the last thing on your mind. Once you are more established, you may be able to reconsider this.
Another major benefit of BYOD is that it gives employees the comfort and independence of working with the laptops that they are used to. This may or may not lead to an increase in productivity, but it can definitely help employees feel more ‘at home.’ For those working from home, it cuts down on the need to switch between home and work devices. It’s simpler and easier to use the device you love and are used to.
Challenges of BYOD
As with any other new policy your business may want to adopt, it’s best to do so after careful thought. When employees use their own devices, it may be more difficult to monitor their handling of sensitive company information or control what they can or cannot do on their own laptops. The risk of data breaches is, therefore, increased. To best handle these drawbacks, your business must come up with a policy about how employees should use their devices while conducting company work.
Some of the guidelines to consider are given below. These are based on the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. For developing and implementing your business policy on BYOD, it’s best to consult with an IT support company in San Antonio.
- Devices must be regularly updated so that the most current versions are in use. This relates to the operating system, security software, and other programs.
- Devices must be protected by strong passwords to prevent access by non-employees. Different user accounts can be set up. Automatic lock screen settings should be activated.
- Users must not download any programs that are not recommended or secured.
- When working at home or remotely, employees must make sure that their devices are not connected to unknown devices by disabling Bluetooth and other device sharing settings.
If you are looking for IT support experts in Sana Antonio, get in touch with ICS. We can customize IT support services to meet your growing business needs, and help you implement and monitor your BYOD programs. Contact us now for more information.
Further reading
ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.