Small businesses strategies: Bring your own device?

ring your own device to work (BYOD) means that rather than provide equipment like computers or cell phones, a company lets employees use their own choice of gear, and then generally reimburses them for it. The employee might choose to get a service contract from the equipment retailer, reducing the need for an in-house IT staff.

It's quite a temptation for a small business. But a decision on whether or not to support BYOD is anything but obvious.
Pros

The introduction of the Web, mobile computing, and cloud computing has turned business technology upside down. Employees work outside regular hours and duty strays far beyond the four walls of the office. In many industries, embracing smartphones and tablets is increasingly necessary.

By letting employees choose their own equipment, companies vote for greater productivity and flexibility. People will naturally be more effective using the tools that they prefer. If a company uses contractors, such temporary employees can supply their own devices and be ready to be productive that much faster.
many different types of cell phones

There are so many different kinds of cell phones. Why not choose your own? Flickr/Personeelsnet

Pervasive Internet connectivity means that employees working from virtually any device at any location still need access to corporate data and software. Expanding use of cloud services could make the use of a variety of devices even easier.

There are also savings for the company. Even if it reimburses employees for equipment and warranty plans, the company saves on the expenses of managing computers and phones, plus the additional IT staffing or consulting to handle problems. That's particularly important for a small business that doesn't have extensive IT resources.

Many companies might find that new employees already own devices that they could use, and for which they would expect no reimbursement.
Cons

Of course, untold benefits without a downside don't happen in the real world. The first and most obvious problem is compatibility. A company's systems may require specific combinations of operating system and hardware specifications.
choosing your own typewriter might not be wise

Choose your own device—within reason. Flickr/Donovan Beeson

When you let employees decide on the type of devices they'll use, the final choice is out of your hands. If what they use isn't compatible, getting them access to the applications and resources they need might be tough. There's also the question of corporate culture and whether the company can get the right amount of cooperation from employees.

More generally, if something goes wrong with a user-supplied device or computer, the employee has to contract an outside company to get service. Repairs through retail stores can take weeks, which means you'lll need temporary replacement units to keep employees productive.

If you don't have absolutely everything running off some cloud or server, then trying to sync applications and files could be difficult. Not all businesses are ready for cloud services. Forget about the store that sold the hardware offering any help in the case of software incompatibilities, because it's not a hardware problem.

Suddenly, you're back in the hardware support business. And asking employees to use hardware they already own could for some create resentment and a need to reconsider how to handle employee relations.

Should the hardware work as advertised, there are some potentially big legal issues. The hardware is theirs, not yours. What if an employee leaves? How do you compel the person to turn over data that you suspect he or she has on the machine?

And if you're used to monitoring what employees do, you might find yourself in a quagmire, especially if anyone else in the employee's family uses the device, and you inadvertently monitor that person's activities too. When it's your equipment, you can do as you wish.
The Answer?

There is no single and simple best practice. You have to weigh the pros and cons and see what compromises might get you the best combination of benefits with acceptable risk. One solution might be for the company to own the equipment, but to give employees some freedom in the purchasing process.

Maybe there's a choice between PC laptop and a MacBook, or between an iPhone or Blackberry phone for a corporate-owned cellular account. Check with local consultants that work with both PCs and Macs, or integrate both iOS-based and Android-based cellular devices.

The best thing you can do is see which strategies might require technical changes for your business, and then make a smart decision, not one dictated by either habit or fad.