BYOD is a relatively new trend impacting the business world across the globe and it's gathering pace.
It affects businesses of all size and could already be infiltrating your business today without you even knowing it.
BYOD is more commonly known as Bring Your Own Device although you may have heard different terms such as:

• BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology)
• BYOP (Bring Your Own Phone)
• BYOPC (Bring Your Own PC)

With the massive surge in "consumerisation of IT" fuelled by the increase in sales of smart phones, tablets and laptops, there has been a shift towards IT self-sufficiency among employees, who see their devices as superior to those offered by the company.
These newer, "superior" devices are seen as the future, and who can blame an employee from wishing to use their iPhone over an old style, "app-less" phone or the latest super-fast tablet or laptop over an ageing, slow Windows XP or earlier desktop PC? It's embarrassing to be given a relic of a phone and it rarely provides a positive image of the business.
Furthermore, there's a desire from employees to use one device to share between business and personal use which is understandable.
There are many advantages of BYOD for business owners:

• Reduce capital expenditure by not replacing dated computers or phones.
  
• Portraying a more modern-looking, forward thinking business by adopting BYOD.
  
• Increasing the feel-good factor among staff through modernisation.
  
• Potentially increasing effectiveness and efficiency through implementation of new technology.
  
• You are deemed a more attractive business when recruiting, because you are seen to be a flexible and modern employer.
  

Of course, there are more far reaching consequences of adopting BYOD, which will require consultation at the highest level with HR, IT, Finance managers/directors and of course, outside consultation with your IT support company.
There's a dark side to this new-age business approach.
Each issue is deep and requires careful consideration and a written policy behind it.
This policy MUST be extremely clear to ensure you are protecting both the business and the employee's personal rights...
By far the greatest challenge for any business when agreeing to a BYOD policy is the critical issue of security.
After all, you are allowing an employee's personal device to access secure areas of data.
There are three key aspects requiring specific attention: 1) The level of access provided 2) Storage of data on this device.
3) Security of this device.
Within each of these critical statements there are many additional questions to answer e.
g.
under point 1 "can the device access key data outside of the confines of the workplace?" If so, what additional security protocols are required and will this conflict with personal settings on the device?" "How is data protected if stored on a personal device and who must pay for the additional security software required?" Companies often have a policy to restrict access to certain websites whilst at work.
However, "if personal devices are used at work, how do you stop misuse of the internet on a personal device during work time or break times?" e.
g.
access to social media.
Does this mean employees cannot access these websites on their break using their own personal device? Let's take a look at some of the other key questions to further raise the debate...
How is the device or devices funded? Are there any tax implications for this? What happens if the device gets damaged or stolen, who is responsible for replacement? What happens when the employee leaves the business? How do you ensure that all data stored on the phone is wiped? Does this impact on the employee's personal rights? How do you stop the employee's clients and suppliers continuing to contact them as the telephone number does not belong to the Company? What if the employee moves to a competitor and takes this number with them? Companies often install certain monitoring software which is perfectly legal to track data being sent and received from a device.
How would this work and be viewed by employee's? Who is responsible for managing patches, upgrades and what software can be installed? Who and where do employee's go to for support? Are their devices covered under the Company's IT support contract? If not and there is a device failure, what are the dangers through loss of data, security breaches etc through using an unknown third party to repair the device? Summary In most businesses today, network security is paramount.
Bring your own device requires new solutions to maintain network security.
There are consequences here that require multi-department consultation including your IT support provider.
Before you consider opening what could be "Pandoras box," by agreeing to BYOD in your organisation, recognise that the policy, procedures and support mechanisms MUST be in place which will require considerable input from your IT support company.