SHOULD YOU USE YOUR IPHONE FOR WORK?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

• Advantages:
• Employees can use their own smart phones would allow companies to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money on these devices.
• In addition, the companies are easier to keep track of each mobile device and to roll out software upgrades or fixes because all employees were using the similar devices. 
• Besides that, a number of software products have emerged to help companies manage diverse mobile platforms. These software products have capabilities for configuring devices remotely, enforcing different set of policies for different user and devices, and managing applications running on all of them. 
• Enhanced Productivity: Mobile devices offer the benefits of convenience and speed. Sales executives can do their jobs while traveling, management can keep up with emails or review important documents on their tablets, and anyone can stay connected with their Smart phone. Smart phones have become a primary player in how workers communicate and share both work-related and personal data throughout the course of a day. 
• Cost Savings: Within Bring Your Own Device environments, the costs associated with the personal device are just that: personal. Most workers willingly purchase their preferred laptop or mobile device, including their data plan, and simply want to use it for business purposes. This can mean significant savings for your IT department as compared with the investment in company-issued devices.
• Improved Morale: When techs are able to use the devices they already know and love, and achieve higher success rates because of it, they will be happier working for your company. Studies have shown that even when employees are responsible for fronting the cost of the device and cell coverage, they’re still happier using their personal devices than bulk IT department issued devices. 

• Disadvantages:
• Because the employee works with more than one type of mobile device and operating system, company will need to quickly and flexibly confirm that their employees are still able to remain performance.
• Moreover, company providing adequate technical support for every employee could be difficult with the variety of phones and operating systems available. 
• On the other hand, mobility puts assets and data at greater risk compare to if they were only located within company wall on company machines. 
• Managing Security: One of the riskiest aspects of a BYOD environment is managing security. Your BYOD policy should require minimum security measures. Consider scenarios such as an employee who loses a mobile phone or laptop and puts sensitive company data in the wrong hands. Develop a process for establishing those controls before the employee is allowed to access company data. What about compliance issues? Does your business operate within an industry that must adhere to certain practices for protecting data? 
• Controlling Acceptable Use: Allowing employees to use their own personal devices means that your company has suddenly lost some levels of control over the appropriate use of the technology. Unlike a company-issued laptop or device, which comes with an acceptable use policy, it’s not exactly easy to control how someone uses a personal device. That’s why many companies are turning to BYOD policies to set reasonable expectations. 
• Retrieving Data: Your BYOD policy should also address what happens if/when an employee leaves your company. Who will discontinue their access to your company data? Do they have their own phone number? What if clients were calling that number directly? In a sales environment, this is particularly risky. Suddenly, your ex-employee may become a direct competitor with easy access to your client’s contact info and vice versa. 

What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

• MANAGEMENT
• If employees are allowed to work with more than one type of mobile device and operating system, companies need an effective way to keep track of all the devices employees are using. 
• When employees make change to their personal phones, such as switching cellular carriers, changing their phone number or buying a new mobile device together. Company will need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to remain productive. 
• Firm need an efficient inventory management system that keep track of which devices employees are using, where the device is located. Whether it is being used, and what software it is requirement. 
• A firm’s software development teams need to have one professional focused on ensuring that new applications will be easily usable and useful on smart phones. The applications and software need to be used on mobile devices to connect to the firm`s existing IT platform and company-wide CRM, SCM, and ERP systems. The mobility experts can help company leverage mobility more effectively. Companies need to ensure that sensitive or confidential information is secured by using technologies that allow them to wipe data from devices remotely or encrypt data when a device is stolen or missing so that it cannot be used. 

• ORGANIZATION
• Integrate mobile devices to corporate and it strategy company needs to carefully examine their business process and determine whether or not mobility makes sense for them.
• The security, inventory management, support, integrating mobile devices into pre-existing IT functions and systems, and measuring return on investment should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smart phones for work. 
• When employees make changes to their personal phones, companies need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to remain productive. Firms need and efficient inventory management system that keeps track of which devices employees are using, where the device is located, whether it is being used, and what software it is equipped with company needs to provide adequate technical support for every employee who is using a variety of phones and operating systems. When employees are not able to access critical data or encounter other problems with their mobile devices, they will need assistance from the information systems department. 

• TECHNOLOGY
• With the variety of phones and operating system available, providing adequate technical support for every employee could be difficult. 
• A firm software development teams can benefit from having one person specifically focused on ensuring that new application will be easily usable and useful on smartphone. 
• The corporate IT resources are important for managing and maintaining a large number of devices in an organization. The company’s networks must be configured to receive connections from the employees’ mobile devices and operating systems to access the company’s information. 

Allowing employees to use their own smartphones for work will save the company money. Do you agree? Why or why not? 

• We TOTALLY AGREE with the statement.
• The cost will be save if the company allows employees to use their own smartphone for work as below:
• ELIMINATE MONTHLY PLAN COSTS: Shifting an employee from a company-owned device to his own means you’ll shift at least a portion of the monthly service plan cost to the employee. At least currently, employees have some expectation of their employer contributing some reimbursement for a work device. While many companies are providing reimbursement for smart devices, there is typically only a small or no reimbursement for a second device such as a tablet. The best practice is to establish three to five tiers of reimbursement toward smartphones, typically ranging from $35 to $125 per month in the U.S. and Canada. A single-tier approach can actually cause over-payment across the board. Avoid adding costs of processing expense reports by implementing automated direct-to-carrier payments. 
• Reality: There will be some mix of corporate liable still on the books.

• ELIMINATE DEVICE PURCHASE & UPGRADE COSTS: When the cost of purchasing phones, tablets and even laptops can be shifted to employees, the annual cost savings from BYOD can easily be in the hundreds of dollars per employee, per year. 
• ELIMINATE (SOME) PLATFORM UPGRADE COSTS: Many organizations that have invested heavily in BlackBerry are struggling with the dilemma of their BYOD users demanding iOS and Android support. Implementing a BYOD program has proven to be an effective way to migrate off of BlackBerry and the reliance on BES servers while allowing the employee base to cover the cost of changing platforms, saving the company $200 or more for every user. 
• Reality: IT and business units will need to invest in ongoing policy creation, some form of enterprise mobility management (EMM), security, and potential infrastructure expansion (such as bolstering Wi-Fi) to manage and secure all devices as well as to accommodate devices that might not have accessed the network previously.

• REDUCE IT/ HELP DESK SUPPORT: Whether your support costs increase or decrease because of BYOD is largely dependent on how many users you support today. But for every employee that goes BYOD rather than with a corporate-owned device, activities related to device and plan provisioning are eliminated. Help desk support might also be reduced considerably for BYOD users, depending on your mobile policy, how tech savvy your employee base is, and if you can replace live help desk with virtual support.