Is BYOD easier than corporate mobile management?

By One Source

Cost Management

Cost management is the biggest bonus companies expect when considering moving to BYOD. Teams believe that they can “set it and forget it” by choosing a stipend amount and handing it off to employees to manage. In reality, it presents more policies to develop and administrative work for various teams. You’ll need to establish reimbursement policies for employee-owned devices, which can put a strain on your finance team. They’ll need to set clear policies for expense reimbursement, including what’s eligible, setting any maximum limits, and managing expectations around tax implications. It’s also harder to track and manage these expenses, as you don’t have the visibility into carrier plans, contract end dates, and device upgrades. Not to mention, paying for individual lines isn’t the best way to get better rates. Collective buying power usually lowers your carrier spend by 20-30%.

Security

Ensuring the security of company data on personal devices is a significant concern. Companies have less control over the security measures on personal devices, which can increase the risk of data breaches. According to one 2023 Global Mobile Threat Report, the number of compromised devices has risen over the past few years, up 187% since 2022, coinciding with companies and their employees using mobile devices for work. The reporting company noted that the devices were generally compromised by vulnerabilities in applications and SMS phishing attacks. Appropriate security controls and end-user education are essential, for both corporate-managed and BYOD strategies.

Policy Enforcement

Developing clear BYOD policies that address security, acceptable use, and other considerations can be complex. This could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months to develop, depending on your company and the industry you work in. Typically these need to go through planning, drafting, legal review, revisions, final approval/implementation, and finally employee training/awareness. Monitoring and enforcing policies will fall on several teams, including IT, security, HR, Legal, Leadership, etc.

Support/Maintenance

With a BYOD policy, you’ll likely end up with a wide variety of devices and operating systems to support. Ensuring compatibility and security across all platforms can be a bit of a headache. Confirming that all devices are up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates can also be more challenging with a bigger pool of devices/operating systems that could be changing on a near-constant basis.

Data Ownership & Employee Privacy Concerns

Respecting employees’ privacy and safeguarding company data can be a thin line when switching to BYOD. Determining who owns the data on an employee’s personal device and establishing protocols for accessing and managing that data can be a huge challenge that can affect security, compliance, and even productivity.

Compliance and Regulation

Ensuring that devices comply with industry regulations and company policies is harder to monitor with personal devices. We could probably write a whole blog post on this topic alone, but considerations here should include compliance with data privacy acts, compliance with industry-specific regulations, data retention policies, monitoring and reporting, security standards, employee consent, and data segregation.

If your goal is purely to remove the burden of mobility management from your team, give managed mobility from One Source a try.