VARs: It’s Time to Make BYOD Part of Your Strategy
IT departments at midsize organizations are struggling with securing the myriad devices that are showing up on their networks. These organizations have trouble creating practical and effective mobile and BYOD (bring your own device) policies.
Oftentimes, these IT departments are forced to say "no" to BYOD requests simply because they don’t have the security licenses to properly protect all these devices. However, IT professionals aren’t naïve—they know personal devices are still being used without their consent and without security. But if all employees were allowed to bring all their personal devices to work and use them for business purposes, IT wouldn't be able to keep up. And there would be no way to predict how many licenses the IT department would need, forcing the department to perpetually purchase new licenses.
The consumerization of IT and the need to secure these personal devices creates an opportunity for VARs to offer their customers assistance with BYOD and security. Here are a couple of suggestions for using BYOD to create new revenue streams:
Creating mobile policies
As an IT consultant, your customers depend on you to provide both guidance and solutions to address their security dilemmas. One way VARs can assist customers and create new revenue streams is to provide assistance creating mobile use policies. Many SMBs don’t know where to start when it comes to BYOD, so simply offering advice or a ready-made BYOD policy checklist can help.
Securing all devices without going broke
Once a company has created and implemented a BYOD policy, it will need a mobile device management solution to help it secure all these devices. This can become expensive as employees are constantly acquiring new smartphones, tablets and other devices, which they may want to use for work purposes. IT departments, like all departments, need to plan for their expenses, and if employees are allowed to add new devices to the network whenever they wish, IT won’t be able to plan for security licensing expenses.
To help combat this, VARs can offer solutions that secure individuals rather than devices. By this, I mean offering a single license for each employee that will protect all devices. This way, any new device is automatically able to be secured, and employees won’t have to sneak their new devices on the network because there aren’t any security licenses left.
We are all aware of the benefits and challenges of BYOD, but it also creates an opportunity for vendors and VARs to help businesses, especially SMBs, ensure their employees can not only remain productive but also increase their productivity.
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