Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
acronym BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – has become standard in many companies today. It allows employees to bring their private end devices, such as smartphones, into the company to work with. It is therefore part of the additional client equipment of company employees.
The term BYOD basically describes a situation with two prerequisites:
- The device used belongs to the employee. In other words, it is the property of said employee.
- The device is given access to certain IT resources of the company.
The principle therefore follows a different solution, such as the “Choose Your Own Device” model, in which the employee can choose a device from a range of products, meaning that the device remains the property of the employer. Both models naturally raise the usual questions regarding permission for private use.
Advantages of Bring Your Own Device
The advantages of BYOD are obvious: with mobile “smart devices”, the right information can be made available at the right time and, above all, at the right (virtually any) place for planning and controlling company processes, for example in the logistics and intralogistics industries.
The latter describes the possibility of linking modern technologies with industrial processes and making employees even more flexible. Users can use a smartphone or tablet to view process data in real time and, if necessary, even change or stop a process completely – without having to sit at the actual workstation. And smartphones and tablets not only support the user with navigation, product details and images, such as augmented reality, they can also report valuable information to other systems. Such information can be, for example, parcel jam information or replenishment problems, which subsequently transmit a change in the advised arrival time. Industry 4.0 is thus becoming increasingly realistic. The little helpers will be popular companions in the future, especially in order picking , because employees will be able to call up information at the touch of a button and have both hands free for picking thanks to practical cuff and finger scan systems.
Disadvantages of Bring Your Own Device
The disadvantages lie firstly in the design of the end devices. Especially in the industrial sector, battery life and the lack of a robust shell are a weak point and therefore also a potential cost factor. On the other hand, possible security risks due to malware and poorly secured hardware must be taken into account during use. An intruder could cause enormous damage to the entire company network via the intranet.
BYOD and data protection
From a legal perspective, implementing BYOD is not rocket science, but when using private devices in a corporate environment, private and business data should always be strictly separated. There are countless guidelines available to help with the decision and implementation. The company must also have control over business data such as emails, documents and applications at all times. If personal data is collected or combined, the internal organization must be designed in such a way that it meets the special requirements of data protection. A lawyer should always be consulted for advice.
Further information on the use of smartphones in everyday areas can be found at Near Field Communication (NFC)
Image source: Michael Coghlan / CC BY-SA 2.0