In my previous post, titled “Five Tips for Overcoming BYOD Challenges,” I outlined five ways that businesses can protect themselves on the BYOD front. The tips were provided by Matthew Dornquast, CEO and co-founder of Code 42 Software.
Today, I want to highlight an additional five tips from Dornquast that small and mid-sized businesses can use to overcome BYOD challenges.
Provide the Productivity Tools Your Employees Need
According to Dornquast, simply banning the use of services such as cloud-based file sharing portals is neither productive nor effective. Indeed, denying employees the use of legitimate productivity services and apps may result in them opting for rogue applications without notifying the IT department, argues Dornquast. What SMBs should do is explore the solution that meets genuine collaboration and productivity needs while also “satisfying your security and compliance requirements.”
Encourage/Invent Frequent Backup of Mobile Devices
One particular downside of the different mobile operating system platforms out there are their inherent restrictions that prevent IT departments from performing regular backups without investing in expensive MDM (mobile device management) tools. Dornquast has a couple of interesting ideas on this, which include the suggestion that periodic backup reminders be scheduled to prompt employees to back up their mobile devices, or the creation of an incentive program to reward those who back up regularly.
Develop a Formal Process to Deal with Terminated Employees
Most SMBs have formal processes for dealing with terminated employees, be it of the voluntary or involuntary kind. Rather than ignoring it, the logical thing to do is to extend this process to mobile or BYOD platforms as well. “The keys to success are well-established processes, checklists and attention to detail,” says Dornquast.
Review Policy Compliance Regularly
Compliance to policy should be reviewed regularly. On this, Dornquast says that a help desk data analysis should be conducted every six months at a minimum. Device activity should be reviewed, and devices should be checked if they have been jailbroken or rooted. Policies should then be adjusted where necessary.
Review the BYOD Program Frequently
Finally, it makes sense to revisit the current BYOD program regularly, given how mobile devices and applications (and even operating systems) are increasing. For example, Windows Phone 8 devices are due to be released within the next couple of months, while BlackBerry OS 10 will debut in January 2013. Each of these developments may cause employees to access corporate data or apps in different ways, necessitating that tweaks be made to existing policies.
If you have any questions or comments, do feel free to chip in at the comments section below.