The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/230349
best practices experience challenges by seeking reimbursement from the employee (a logistical nightmare) or by paying more if they reimburse the employee for monthly expenses. As a result, many organizations revert to providing the employee with a monthly stipend. Without a corporate discount or volume plan, employees might experience higher costs, and fewer employees on the corporate plan will reduce the organization's buying power. • IT Helpdesk Costs: Organizations must decide what type of support they will provide to BYOD users and how to ensure a policy of only supporting corporate-issued devices will not backfire and ultimately hamper productivity. If they decide to support BYOD users to ensure productivity, the increased costs associated with supporting a plethora of platforms must be taken into consideration. • Mobile Developer Costs: Many organizations have internal and third-party applications to access corporate data. A BYOD policy needs to consider additional development costs associated with making those applications compatible with numerous platforms. • Mobility Management Costs: With multiple platforms to support, organizations must deploy mobility management platforms to ensure security and reduce IT support costs. The costs associated with those platforms are a consideration in the overall cost structure. Making BYOD Exclusive and Popular With security concerns continuing to grow and regulations challenging most industries, IT departments must be vigilant to ensure an enterprise's security strategy. With limited resources and competing priorities, IT's ability to function efficiently and meet the needs of its clients often depends on standardization. BYOD changes that paradigm. Ovum reports that 57 percent of all full-time employees use a personal device to access corporate data, presenting tremendous potential risk for organizations. IT organizations must leverage advanced tools to secure a multitude of evolving platforms. With limited control over applications, IT must ensure potential threats from malicious software are effectively controlled. Considerations to secure devices range from evaluating dual-persona platforms to more lightweight tools in order to protect the network and, more important, the data. A BYOD policy that enables users to access corporate information from a multitude of devices implies that an individual user might use multiple disparate devices on the network at the 18 Peer to Peer same time. Scalability for an IT organization therefore goes beyond traditional methods to include a flexible infrastructure, enhanced support for an increased number of competing devices, complex perimeter security to support secure access from evolving nodes and a sophisticated application development strategy to render a positive mobile experience. Pull Off BYOD Without a Hitch BYOD doesn't have to mean DIY. Many IT organizations do not have the resources, time, tools or expertise to take on the challenges of mobility management. BYOD only adds to the complexity. Enterprise mobility management (EMM) providers can offload the challenge and help the corporation evaluate varying policies, support models and application strategies. They can also help identify the scope of what the corporation will or won't support. EMM providers will often provide access to mobile device management (MDM) platforms to help streamline and centralize user, device and application administration. An August 2012 report by Aberdeen suggests leveraging an EMM solution provider to "fill the gaps in [the] organization's skill set and simplify mobility management tasks." A top 100 law firm, has realized the importance of an EMM solution. They reduced staff time spent on mobility expense management from 80 hours to two hours per month. The firm was also able to identify 10 percent in monthly savings by leveraging an overage report. Love it or hate it, BYOD is more than just the industry's latest buzz — it's here to stay. Proponents suggest it will help ease budget constraints; analysts believe it will become the norm. No matter what an organization decides to do, its IT leadership must develop a strategy, establish policies and enforce those policies. Sameer Hilal is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of vCom Solutions. Under Sameer's leadership, vCom has been ranked in Entrepreneur Magazine and "The San Francisco Business Times" as a fastest-growing company, has achieved over a 95 percent customer satisfaction rating five years in a row and has been ranked fourth in best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area in the small company category. He can be contacted at sameer@vcomsolutions.com.