Tips to Avoid Rising BYOD Costs

BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is a framework being adopted in most modern enterprises worldwide. Research reports have pointed to the fact that BYOD is beneficial to both the workforce and the employers. While the employees are more comfortable doing official work with their personal devices, the organization’s management sees this framework as a method of cost cutting. However, recent BYOD models are reportedly becoming very expensive for enterprises to manage. According to a recently concluded survey, it is the enterprise workforce that takes liberty in indulging in irresponsible and infamous BYOD spending. Factors such as excess data and voice, the use of irrelevant texting services and premium ringtones, and international roaming surcharges are responsible for increased BYOD costs. Here we provide you with tips on how to cut down on the total BYOD expenditure within an organization:

1. Try to understand the mobile behavior of the end user – Research shows that all employees bringing their personal devices to the workplace use every means that is needed for quick completion of the work at hand, often leading to overspending of the company’s resources. In order to reduce such unnecessary costs, a team of IT personnel within the company must keep a close check on data of the devices used by the employees, their billing records, and the voice plans. This check must be conducted at regular intervals in order for the management to understand the BYOD usage patterns of their workforce.

2. Maintain a strict rule on mobile devices that can be used and will be supported in the BYOD framework – Recent surveys on BYOD patterns have shown that tangible expenses occur because the enterprise management cannot control the type of devices that employees can bring to work. Supporting all types of mobile devices and the operating systems running in them will ultimately lead to unwanted expenditure on the part of a company. Hence, every organization adopting the BYOD framework must also design policy agreements which highlight types of devices and platforms allowed for official work and the technical support which will be provided by the company in case of rundown of these devices. 

3. Consider before finalizing a reimbursement strategy – It has been noticed that most organizations following the BYOD strategy pay a fixed stipend to the workforce that is part of the company’s BYOD program, thus barring them from the responsibility of making hardware expenses incurred in issuance of laptops and smartphones. Not many enterprises stop to think that the former is a more costly practice than the latter. This is because of the fact that corporate hardware is generally issued to a segment of the workforce; BYOD frameworks generally include the whole workforce unit. One way to curb costs is to issue stipends to selected individuals taking part in the BYOD campaign.

4. Use automation practices in the BYOD program – BYOD practices involving automation are not only more cost effective, they are also error free and secure. Enterprises should not opt for BYOD frameworks that involve manual work or too much manpower. Mobile analysts say that the total cost incurred in enterprise ownership also reduces through adoption of automation practices.

Has your company adopted the BYOD policy yet? If yes, it is time to take into account the above mentioned factors for ensuring BYOD cost reduction.