BYOD

Nowadays, when we talk about technology in companies, a study of social classes stands out. This topic involves many aspects and can be understood from different angles; therefore, it is the subject that always comes up is the advantages and disadvantages of BYOD. There are many issues surrounding this practice, so business owners often ask IT managers about this practice. In this article we will describe the advantages and disadvantages of BYOD.

BYOD is the acronym in English for “Bring Your Own Device”, something that can be translated into Portuguese as bring your own equipment. In this way, employees can take their personal devices  such as notebooks, smartphones, tablets, among others, to use in work activities.

For you to understand more about the study of social classes stands out. This topic involves many aspects and can be understood from different angles; therefore, it is the subject, we have listed the main advantages and disadvantages of BYOD. The idea is that you put all the points in the balance and check whether this method of work can be efficient or not in your company.

Advantages of BYOD

Among the main advantages that BYOD presents to companies, the ones listed below stand out.

1-Reduction of equipment costs

Obviously, by adopting the BYOD work system, there will be a reduction in equipment costs, as the company will not need to invest in devices.

It may not seem like it, but a company that works with external vendors, for example, can have a lot of expenses if it needs to buy a laptop and a smartphone for each of them, for example.

In addition, in addition to the purchase of equipment, there is also an expense with maintenance , whenever they present a defect or failure that needs to be repaired. All this is no longer an obligation for the company when BYOD is adhered to.

2-Greater employee convenience

BYOD also ensures more convenience for employees, as they will be using equipment they are already familiar with and easy to use.

An employee who has an iPhone and is very fond of the iOS operating system may find it difficult to adapt to a business smartphone that operates with the Android system, for example.

3-Increased productivity

When they use their own equipment to perform work activities, employees feel more motivated to finish jobs faster.

This will increase the company’s productivity, with activities being carried out in less time and faster.

4-Mobility

The implementation of BYOD provides more mobility for companies, since their employees can work anywhere, using cloud computing, for example. To do this, all you need is access to the internet.

This method, therefore, can be useful for companies that work in the home office regime, which is increasingly popular, having even been regulated by the recent labor reform.

Disadvantages of BYOD

Although there are positives to using the BYOD method in the company, there are also some disadvantages. Next, we’ll talk about them.

1-Lack of security

The main risk that BYOD brings to companies is the lack of security. This is because, when they are connected to an internet network, viruses or malicious files can be passed from one device to another, for example.

This happens because the company is unable to have control over what employees access on their equipment when they are not working. So, if only one employee doesn’t have a good antivirus installed on his cell phone and uses the company’s Wi-Fi network to access the internet, he can compromise all the other devices.

The lack of security is also related to confidentiality issues, both in terms of the company and the employee. By mistake, the employee may leak sensitive company information to his personal contacts, as well as issues of his personal life may be mistakenly leaked to co-workers and professional contacts.

2-Need to increase infrastructure

It is impossible for the company to have control over the models and operating systems used by employees on their devices . Thus, it is very likely that it will be necessary to invest in the company’s infrastructure, due to issues involving compatibility.

If the employee has an iPhone and needs to share information from his smartphone with a computer with Windows software  in the company, he may be faced with an impasse, since this is not possible.

Thus, for BYOD to work correctly, the organization would have to prepare to have several pieces of equipment, so that these incompatibility problems do not occur.

3-Lack of separation between personal and professional life

The lack of a boundary between personal and professional life can cause problems for employees and also for the company. When using a personal smartphone at work, the employee will receive private messages on their WhatsApp, notifications from their social networks, etc.

This can cause him to lose productivity, as he may, even unintentionally, have time or be distracted by these interventions.

The opposite is also true and the employee will always be taking home the company’s problems. This can cause him to work in his off hours. In addition to physical and emotional exhaustion, this fact can even generate labor lawsuits against the company in the future.

4-Inequality among employees

It must be taken into account that not all employees have the same financial conditions or personal goals. Someone who is very tech-savvy may have no problem investing their money in high -end mobile devices  .

On the other hand, a person who uses smartphones only to make calls and exchange messages may not see the need for a higher powered device.

The company can’t force anyone to buy something they don’t want, so inequality can make an app work well on some more modern devices, but not run on simpler ones.

These are the main advantages and disadvantages of BYOD. As we said, it is important that each company evaluates all of them and thus checks whether or not it is feasible to adopt this method of work in the company. In all cases, it is worth noting that there must be zeal in protecting the company’s data.

How to establish an effective BYOD policy?

As you may have already understood, despite having several advantages, adopting a BYOD policy requires a lot of planning and attention. It is not possible to control what employees install and access on their personal devices outside the work environment, however, it is essential that within the corporate environment, the network and device activities are properly monitored and controlled.

Each company can adopt this control policy in the way that is most appropriate for their business and, with that in mind, we have brought some tips on how to establish basic internal regulations for the good management of the BYOD practice.

• Access control: it is important that companies that adopt BYOD have a good network structure and a user authentication system. This helps the company to limit access to its data, either in terms of which employees can access it or in terms of how far the data can be accessed.
• Personal and corporate traffic awareness: The effective security policy must make clear to employees the limitations when using the company network. In addition, the company must establish monitoring of the networks accessed by employees and, if necessary, identifying and restricting access to sites that are not useful in the daily work of employees, such as social networks.
• Liability for damage and loss of equipment: as we have already mentioned, the employee who needs to use their own devices to work is study of social classes stands out. This topic involves many aspects and can be understood from different angles; therefore, it is the subject to loss and damage on their items. The BYOD policy must establish who will be responsible for any theft, loss or damage to equipment, so that it is clear who will be responsible for replacing the devices if there is a problem of this level.
• Setting time limits for use: it is essential that the company also establishes time limits for the use of personal devices for work. Although the practice of BYOD allows the worker to have more flexibility to work at the time and place he wants, it is important that the policy created for this practice encompasses issues related to overtime and working hours , in order to avoid legal problems, such as example, wrongly paying overtime to employees who work on their personal devices after hours. It is important to have a system that controls employee access and monitors the time they spend using personal equipment to work.

We hope you have noted the advantages and disadvantages of BYOD