A couple of weeks ago I looked at the importance of taking into account generational differences and individual user requirements before SMEs embark upon a BYOD policy. Here, I'm taking a deeper look into the costs of allowing employees to bring their own personal devices into the workplace.

The cost of BYOD – more than just money

It's fair to say that, for CIOs, there can be significant advantages found in implementing a BYOD policy. Tablets are fairly durable – an aspect which IT managers particularly favour – and when ordered in bulk, can have a relatively low corporate cost per unit, compared to laptops.

Whilst a BYOD policy does increase choice for every generation of employee – companies often feel they lose control over what happens to the device, and corporate control is relaxed, with concerns over physical security, as tablets are easy to steal outside the workplace. This, together with the risk of loss of data with staff moves, additions and changes and increased risk of malwares and viruses, must all be weighed up before companies opt for a full BYOD policy.

Varies by industry

In some industry sectors where security and data loss is a key issue, such as Defence and Finance, companies are focusing on a strategy around applications on the chosen devices in order to enhance productivity of their users, rather than allowing them to choose any device of their choice.

The level of multi-level security and device management required depends on business and user needs. For example, a school or university has relatively low management costs, no integrity check is needed and the data is the responsibility of the user, compared to a financial company where a full integrity check with web based authentication is needed for each individual user.

Companies also need to take into consideration the legal issues in the adoption of BYOD. Can employers legally monitor employee owned devices for data or policy infringement, improper time and resources utilisation, device usage policies etc? All of these policies assume that the device is owned by the employer. But this needs to be updated as well in line with the new trend, for at least limited monitoring.

What does this mean for SMEs?

At the end of the day, it is applications that are driving BYOD adoption, and the value they bring to an employee in the workplace.

Security is undoubtedly an issue as companies have already found with the introduction of mobile devices. SMEs must implement robust endpoint security to protect the sensitive data on an employee's device.

But for SMEs as for large corporations, there is cost effective technology out there to manage and provide secure access and management in a BYOD environment. There are powerful network infrastructures that provide secure collaborative conversation applications on employees' device of choice – the same infrastructure that can integrate voice and data platforms and provide video.

This means that SMEs can adopt a BYOD strategy with confidence. But as I said earlier, it is applications that should drive BYOD adoption.

This is the second of three blogs on the topic of BYOD from Manish. The next one will discuss the shift to the personal cloud.