You will hardly find a work environment that does not rely on computers and mobile devices. Yet, different companies have different policies related to the usage of devices. While some are offering their own equipment to their employees, others encourage their employees to invest in their own gadgets.
This article will give you broader understanding of different practices used in workplaces.
What is BYOD?
BYOD stands for Bring your own device has been long fought and organizations lost the fight they hoped the long tradition of IT assets belong to the company, not the individual.
As the whole idea and practical use of mobile devices spread around, IT people found it quite convenient since they were not in control of these new technologies coming out. Some companies even enforce a policy like the use of personal devices inside the company is prohibited to get access to the company data and resources. This is even more true in high-security environments.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are companies that happily allow employees to bring their own devices and use them. This saves the company some bills and purchases and keeps the employees happy. Win-win situation.
Typically, most of these organizations fall between these two spectrums mentioned above and deploy a mixed environment of BYOD and corporate-owned devices. There are also organizations that have a cost-sharing program, that subsidize the employee-owned device with a monthly basis stipend, or a discount agreement with the mobile device and vendors of telecommunication.
Issues related to using equipment at work
Now the thing is, no matter what kind of benefits or policy the company offers and applies, there are important questions to answer. The very first one is, how much control the organization has versus yours. In case the corporate data is stored or processed on the device, obviously, the organization has some extent of control over it. On the flip side, the employee also has degrees of control over the company data.
Another question is, who exactly pays for the device and its usage? If the company allows the employee to use their device to do company work, who pays for the device maintenance? This issue is best resolved via the company policy.
Also, there are a bunch of other conscience questions involved and to consider. For this, the organization typically uses a mobile device management (MDM) policy that deploys a customized app and infrastructure on the device. These kinds of policies include things like corporate versus end-user agreements and decisions on things like where the boundary lies and how far both parties have access.