The following is taken from the August 2012 Simply Mail Solutions newsletter. You can download the August newsletter as a pdf.
The rise of BYOD
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) isn’t the work equivalent of games day in school; where you brought in your own board games and played all day. It’s a policy more companies are taking up which allows employees to use their own mobiles, tablets and laptops for work. BYOD has benefits for employees (use a device you already know) and employers (reduced IT hardware costs, happier employees) but there are potential concerns which need addressing.
Firstly is the question of how to get work information onto the employee’s device and keep everything in sync. Secondly there are concerns over data loss and security (stolen hardware, an employee leaving or being sacked) and thirdly there is the added IT complexity of supporting multiple devices.
Microsoft Exchange helps businesses handle each of these concerns. ActiveSync makes supporting iPhones, iPads, Windows Mobile and Android devices easy (and with Simply Mail Solutions you also get free Blackberry sync with Microsoft Exchange email), with mail, calendars, address books and more kept fully up-to-date.
Security concerns can be eased thanks to remote wiping of mobile devices. Should a device be lost or stolen the IT department can delete all information from the handset, preventing whoever finds it from accessing commercially sensitive information.
BYOD is a growing trend in business and developing support strategies will be necessary for all companies in the future. Our Microsoft Exchange and Zimbra CS packages are ready for the BYOD transformation, with built-in support for mobile devices and remote wiping supported on Microsoft Exchange via OWA.
For the ultimate in corporate BYOD we recommend switching to Microsoft Office 365 which includes a full suite of mobile services and advanced security.
