4 Ways For Your Small Business To Manage BYOD Effectively

By Brian Sutter, director of marketing, Wasp

An ongoing debate exists about whether BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is a good option for businesses or not. One side recognizes the value it can have for small businesses, because it reduces the amount of money spent on purchasing and training for employees. However, there are those who argue that security issues and the continuous stress of offering tech support for employees using their personal devices make BYOD a bad choice for SMBs.

According to ComputerWorld, 6 out of 10 companies have approved BYOD for their workplaces. Furthermore, it seems BYOD has already happened — employees bring their own phones, tablets and computers to work, regardless of a set BYOD policy. As employees are using personal devices to access the corporate network and log into work email, it’s no longer relevant which side you stand on. The BYOD trend is becoming more prevalent. Here are four ways small business owners can manage BYOD effectively.

1. Create a formal BYOD policy

According to Windstream, nearly 40 percent of SMBs don’t have a formal BYOD policy. Creating a document that clearly defines policies before implementing a BYOD environment will protect your business in the long term. There are several BYOD policy examples available to help guide businesses to explain plainly what devices will and won’t be supported, what will be reimbursed and what won’t, and what the security and acceptable use policy will include. This is also a good time to determine what the exit strategy will be when employees leave the company. The more structure a small business can put around a BYOD environment, the more smoothly the program is likely to run.

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