Over the course of the last two years a huge change has happened in the workplace. The office of yesteryear used to have employees working from their desks five days a week, solely on company computers. However, since the launch of smart devices, especially the iPhone and iPad, a shift has occurred, where employees are largely working away from the office and also bringing in their own tablets, phones and laptops to use in the office – something which is causing quite a buzz as employees show off their new toys and gadgets to their co-workers.

This however, has presented a number of issues and headaches for businesses, the biggest being that the devices aren’t supported by the IT department, opening the organisation up to potential security breaches and nasty file infections. Not only this, but it also creates restriction issues for employees as they try to access certain documents which aren’t supported by the software built into the device – for example flash and word documents are a real pain to access and edit, especially on an iPad!

As this trend builds, in-house IT departments may find themselves overstretched by these new devices and employee demands, but there are inexpensive solutions to help combat this. In 2012, we may see increasing numbers of organisations turn to experienced consultants for assistance and support in integrating and securing these new devices. These providers can help businesses to understand how consumer devices can promote better productivity in the workplace, expansion strategies to integrate or migrate solutions quickly and effortlessly, as well as enabling location-free working and raise morale without having an effect on data security or the functionality of applications.

With iPads, iPhones, tablets and smartphones gaining in popularity both in and out of the workplace, this is not a trend which will simply go away. Although it can be challenging to secure and integrate these devices, there are solutions available which can be integrated before it becomes a problem. As a result this will help to create a significant and beneficial effect on the workforce - and after all, a happy workforce is a productive workforce.