What’s the Right Fit for Your Office: Standardized Tech or BYOD?

Technology is one of the most important investments your company will make. If your employees don’t have the right tools to do their work quickly and securely, then your profits will suffer either through delays, poor adoption rates of industry changes, or even security leaks. But a lot of small companies just don’t have the capital to fully invest in a good laptop, VoIP system, and phone for employees. Even the communal technology like in-office projectors, screens, and physical servers are a budgetary constraint you have to think about carefully.

Benefits of a BYOD Policy

Instead, your company might be considering a BYOD, or bring your own device, policy. Small start-ups often allow employees, especially telecommuting employees and salespeople who travel, to use their personal devices for work. Not only does this mean your company doesn’t have to spend money on hardware that’s more likely to be lost or damaged, those employees are a lot more accessible.

Potential Drawbacks of BYOD

But, depending on the industry your company is in, letting your employees use their own devices might not be the right answer. Personal devices can’t be controlled as easily as corporate devices. That means your employees are going on social media, downloading programs, and clicking on some suspicious links. This can compromise your business’s data, especially if the user falls victim to a phishing scheme or downloads untraceable malware. This is more than bad news for business operations: it means your customer’s PII is at risk and you may be in violation of national data regulations.

BYOD policies also make it easier for employees to make mistakes. Instead of using their company email, they might accidentally use their personal email. Instead of a marketing employee making a political tweet on their own page, they might accidentally post it on the corporate account. When the line between personal technology and company job function is blurred, things can get pretty muddled.

Weigh Your Options

That leaves your company with a hard choice to make: BYOD policies increase savings and work flexibility, but they also bring security problems. Corporate-owned tech is a large initial cost, but it protects the company. Go to Tangram for more office technology considerations so you can weigh the best options for your specific company.