The trend of employees using their personal devices for work, known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), has become increasingly popular in recent years. With the rise of remote work and flexible schedules, many employees prefer to use their own laptops, tablets, and smartphones for work purposes. However, this trend has raised some questions for businesses regarding the security and management of these devices.

If you are considering implementing a BYOD scheme into your workplace, it’s important that it’s set up and secured correctly. Below, we’ll explore the steps that businesses should take to ensure staff who use their own devices remain connected, productive, and easily contactable.

The right work tools can improve productivity.

Without the right tools, the BYOD scheme doesn’t work. Employees bringing in a laptop just for emails and the odd bit of note-taking isn’t worth the hassle. If they’re using a home device as their primary work-station, it’s important to have the right tools and software installed on their devices.

To efficiently work from a home device, staff will need email, file storage, and collaboration tools such as Microsoft 365 and your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Businesses can provide employees with these tools by subscribing to cloud-based services, such as Microsoft Office 365. Our managed IT services can handle all the tool set-up processes for the devices of your choice, allowing you to focus on other pressing points in your business.

How do you keep data accessible?

Working from a home device can risk becoming insular and employees and management may become disconnected from their team. It’s important to have a solution that allows data to be freely shared and accessed by everyone who needs it.

Many businesses are using cloud-based solutions for storage, email, and other applications. Using cloud solutions means staff can access work spaces, data and communications from anywhere with an internet connection. This ensures staff remain on task, productive and accessible to their colleagues at all times.

Unified Communication Software

Productivity gets slowed down when tasks are completed across different devices and platforms.  Let’s say you’ve made a heap of calls from one device, but now you’ve moved to your work laptop, and you can’t see any of your call history. These kinds of issues come up all the time, and it’s moments like these that slow your staff down, through no fault of their own.

The solution to this problem is to use Unified Communication (UC) software across all devices. UC software unites voice calls, video calls and messages into one place, on one platform. Communication between colleagues and clients becomes simpler and more efficient, no matter where they work from.

CityTalk Group provide specialist, professional UC tools, to ensure that businesses and their employees have access to the communication tools they need. We’ll install, manage, and update everything all from our end.

How to keep your staff connected

Internet based tools are a great solution for many businesses, however work would be impossible without access to a good internet connection. Without a solid internet connection, staff are unable to remain productive which could eventually lead to costly losses.

For employees to be able to work effectively, they need access to reliable and fast broadband networks. If employees are working away from the office, management should check that their staff have access to a decent internet connection. If they don’t, the solution is to provide them with 4G dongles, so that they can stay connected, even if the internet is unreliable.

CityTalk have a unique portfolio of products and services, we can ensure your employees have access to the best possible internet connectivity, no matter where they are working from.

Protect essential data with laptop and device backup.

A major concern for businesses who use BYOD is the security of sensitive data stored on employees’ personal devices.  It can be easy to overlook and forget that personal devices have access to work data just like company owned laptops and phones. Your company’s reputation can be put at stake if data is lost, corrupted or deleted.

To mitigate this risk, it’s important to ensure that all data is backed up regularly. This way, if a device is lost, stolen, or damaged, the business can quickly restore important data and minimise downtime.

To back up laptops and devices, cloud-based solutions can be used such as Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. Additionally, businesses can use managed IT services to handle the backup process for them, ensuring that all data is backed up regularly and securely.

 

Secure devices with Firewalls, encryption, and authentication

The most significant threat to BYOD devices is that they are often not managed or secured by businesses, leaving them vulnerable to cyber threats. An unsecured device can be easily compromised, leading to data theft, loss, or damage.

You need robust security measures in place for all BYOD devices being used for work purposes. This includes measures such as encryption, firewalls, and password protection, to ensure that sensitive data is protected and inaccessible to unauthorised users.

An IT support service like CityTalk can provide a comprehensive security solution for all work devices. We can set up and implement security measures, such as two-factor authentication, mobile device management (MDM) software, and virtual private network (VPN) access. We can also monitor the devices for security vulnerabilities, ensuring that any issues are promptly addressed.

Keep devices running with maintenance and repairs.

Another concern for businesses is the maintenance and repair of employees’ personal devices. Let’s picture it. You’re working towards the biggest project of your career and your device stops working.

To ensure that devices are in good working order, businesses should have a service on standby that can handle any maintenance and repairs needed. This way, you’ll never get caught out by faulty devices when you need them most. It will also keep devices healthy and running at optimum performance.

By working with our IT service department, you can ensure that any issues with employees’ personal devices are resolved quickly and efficiently, minimising downtime, and keeping employees productive.

Choosing a BYOD partner like CityTalk Group

Our IT support experts can be your dedicated partner for ensuring your staff home devices are set up, secured, and managed to a professional standard. It’s not easy task when you’ve got a million other things going on in your business. Our IT support are friendly, experienced and always available when you need us.

If you’re considering using a managed IT support service for your BYOD migration, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Head to our website to talk to us.