In today’s tech savvy world, many small businesses have the desire to outfit their employees with the technology that will help their business thrive. That includes smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. However, many businesses struggle with the financial reality of supplying every employee with a smartphone, laptop, or tablet. This has led to a trend of business asking employees to BYOD – bring your own device.
In a recent study on mobile devices in small businesses, 75% of mobile device users agree with the idea that a mobile device is critical to their job and 67% believe that their business would lose their current competitive ground without their mobile devices.
What is it about these mobile devices that make them so valuable to the small business? In the study, 94% of mobile device users agreed that their devices made them more efficient in completing their assigned tasks. Their view is not far off from their IT managers, 85% of which agreed that mobile devices had made the overall company more efficient. Mobile device users sited benefits such as improved communication between the personnel in the field and the office, an increased availability to customers, increased productivity of employees, improved customer service, an increase in collaboration between fellow employees, and an overall streamline business process.
The smartphone, with its ability to access the Internet and email as well as a number of helpful apps, is currently the most popular choice for employees. However, IT managers agree that the use of tablets is going to substantially increase over the next few years.
In the most simple of terms, bring your own device means simply that: the company allows its employees to use their own mobile devices at and for work. Many businesses have started asking employees to provide their own devices to cut down on business expenses. This also gives employees more control over the devices they use at work. In our next post, we’ll discuss some of the pros and cons of the BYOD trend.
