BYOD: BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE

Ruwandi Perera reports on the BYOD phenomenon that may soon be the norm

We have heard of BYOB – the traditional ‘bring your own bottle’ acronym. Then there’s the supermarket version of ‘bring your own bag.’ We’ve even heard of BYOF, which stands for ‘bring your own food’ to potlucks.

And now there’s BYOD – bring your own device; and this may be the best ‘bring your own’ trend so far.

The pandemic questioned many workplace assumptions and practices. Why spend on travel when you can save time, money and unwanted chitchat by meeting online?

And why dress up, brave the traffic, and use space, air conditioning and infrastructure provided by a company, when you can work from home (a.k.a. WFH)?

Why do things simply because that’s the way we’ve always done them?

Similarly, companies began seeing the prospect of permitting employees to use their own devices – laptops, mobile phones, notebooks and tablets – instead of investing in a ton of hardware.

Enter BYOD…

With the majority of executives owning their own laptops and smartphones, and the lines between work and life blurring, the need to be agile and flexible has never been greater.

Switching from a working document on your laptop to paying bills online or checking an email on your tablet when you are engaged in weekend reading is all too familiar. What’s more, most of us are on social media several times during the workday across multiple devices.

You might even be reading this article on Facebook while at work on your laptop.

So why not make life easy, and use common devices for work and life?

With BYOD, employees can stop carrying two phones – and possibly two connections – and working on two different laptops.

Everyone benefits – companies can reduce hardware costs and employees can seamlessly switch from work to other aspects of life.

Nevertheless, not everyone will agree that BYOD is better than the standard practice of working on company provided laptops and using office sponsored phones. In fact, some organisations are removing their remote work policies for the sake of better efficiency.

And then we have the biggest issue of all: data privacy, and protection against hacks and other malware attacks.

However, we’re not without solutions. Tech giants have stepped in to make BYOD possible, safe and enabling. As Samsung puts it, “imagine your work device and the device you want to use actually being one and the same.”

Apple’s BYOD function, which is known as User Enrollment, ensures that employees can enrol their personal Apple devices on the company’s platform. This makes the devices compatible while separating personal and work data.

Microsoft’s 365 Business Premium enables everyone who’s connected to the system to protect their devices, including managed and unmanaged devices – also known as BYODs.

Samsung’s enterprise ready mobile devices are also developed with enhanced security, accessibility and connectivity features.

Of course, not all companies are willing to go all in with BYOD, depending on their size, operations, business and other sensitivities. While an organisation can opt to operate a BYOD environment, the level of access granted to employees may vary.

On a basic level for instance, employees will be permitted to use their personal laptops and smartphones to access their work emails or calendars. Going a step further, they may be allowed a degree of controlled access to company data and applications, while complying with controls such as device encryption and secure authentication.

Businesses that completely embrace BYOD will grant employees full access to company resources without restrictions and trust them with accountability.

It doesn’t take much to start nurturing a BYOD work environment in the office. Simple cybersecurity measures – the obvious practices we must adopt anyway – can go a long way. Ensuring that your WiFi connection is secure, keeping devices updated and (if not using Apple products) installing antivirus software can protect the company, employees and the ecosystem to a large extent.

Employers must ensure that strong policies and practices are implemented, safe digital ecosystems are maintained and employees are trained to work safely. In return, employees are responsible for ethical conduct when it comes to safeguarding company information and adhering to security practices vis-à-vis work.

With great power comes great responsibility; and in the case of BYOD, with greater convenience comes greater accountability.