CREATING AN EFFECTIVE SUPPORT PLAN FOR BYOD: A BEST PRACTICE GUIDE

Transcription

1 CREATING AN EFFECTIVE SUPPORT PLAN FOR BYOD: A BEST PRACTICE GUIDE Delivering The Connected Enterprise Workforce Enablement Asset Management Customer Engagement Network Infrastructure

2 Introduction Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs can offer many benefits, including lowering operating expenses for wireless devices and plans, improving productivity and even delivering greater employee satisfaction. For an organization to realize these benefits, however, it must first develop the two cornerstones of an effective BYOD strategy. The first is a clear set of BYOD policies and a plan for enforcing those policies. The second is a comprehensive support plan that acknowledges and accommodates all employees. Without these cornerstones in place, a BYOD program is far less likely to deliver the desired outcomes. To help your program succeed, we offer this guide with key considerations and best practices for developing a functional BYOD support plan. Why BYOD support requires careful planning When businesses procure and manage mobile devices internally, they typically only support a limited number of employees and devices. In a BYOD workplace, the number of staff and devices can skyrocket overnight. Depending on the organization and the BYOD program, the percentage of staff requiring BYOD support can quickly grow by 50 percent or more. Without a set of BYOD policies and a support plan, the growing number of requests may make it impossible for IT staff to keep up. More importantly, failure to address these support requests will create very real security risks and hamper productivity. Many organizations are already feeling the BYOD support crunch. In a 2012 survey, over 47 per cent of firms identified the need to provide more mobile device support as their number one priority. However, before throwing more resources at the problem, start by developing a comprehensive and manageable plan for BYOD support. 1 Osterman Research, Mobile Devices in the Enterprise: MDM Usage and Adoption Trends, Forrester,

3 Getting started with a BYOD support plan Before getting into the specifics of any plan, we recommend establishing your priorities for BYOD and support. For most organizations, these will include one or more of the following: COST EFFICIENCY Minimizing the costs of delivering mobility and connectivity. SECURITY PRODUCTIVITY Ensuring that the program doesn t expose your organization to a data or privacy breach. Enabling increased employee productivity, mobility and collaboration by providing anytime, anywhere access to company resources. Unfortunately, these objectives are not always compatible. While cost efficiency may be the primary reason for adopting BYOD, the small reduction in overall expenditures is rarely worth exposure to a real security risk. When making support decisions, most Canadian businesses find it necessary to choose one objective over another. In this regard, we see a lot of different approaches across industries. In financial services and other industries that deal with sensitive corporate and customer information, the priority is always security. In contrast, for advertising firms or other creative industries that require remote or ad hoc employee collaboration, productivity takes a front seat when setting up a BYOD policy. Keeping your company priorities in mind, consider these important questions when developing your BYOD support plan: 1. Which employees will you support? Most successful BYOD support programs start by segmenting employees based on their mobile needs. While there are many ways to do that, here are some common approaches to user segmentation: BY LEVEL OF SENIORITY Employees at different levels tend to have different usage profiles. Executives and senior managers typically require greater levels of support and access to more company resources via their wireless devices. Junior or less mobile staff may have less need for mobile devices and fewer essential requirements. Seniority can also help determine how many devices to support for each employee; senior staff often have greater need for additional devices such as tablet computers. 2

4 BY ROLE Many organizations segment end users based on employee role. Mobile sales teams, for example, will have a much greater need for mobile devices than staff that work primarily at a workstation in the office. Mobile employees may also have a greater need for support services that keep them up and running in the field. BY PRIORITY Some businesses find that they need to segment by both role and seniority. Campus environments like hospitals, airports and universities are likely to prioritize executive staff, but also need to ensure high-quality, secure access for employees in other functional areas. Many organizations decide to provide some level of support for all BYOD users. User segmentation can help you design a tiered support program based on user profiles. Once you ve identified all the segments in your organization, your next step is to document the technology you will support. 2. What range of support will you offer? The proliferation of mobile devices and operating systems has made it much more difficult to deliver cost-effective support for BYOD. This is further complicated by the fact that one version of an operating system like Android will often appear and behave differently on different devices. To create a workable support plan for BYOD, most organizations restrict the list of supported devices; however, this can cause issues when employees are paying for their own devices. Since most enterprise-grade devices and operating systems can provide similar features and applications, security becomes the distinguishing factor. And where security is concerned, not all devices and operating systems are created equal. To evaluate which devices and operating systems are appropriate from a security standpoint, you need to consider two things. CONTAINERIZATION The biggest challenge of BYOD programs is that devices will be used for dual purposes. This creates the risk of accidental sharing of company data (for example, misaddressing a work ), as well as the risk of data getting into the wrong hands if the employee leaves the organization or if the device is lost or stolen. Some operating systems and devices come with features that allow you to keep work and personal data separate. Examples include devices running BlackBerry Balance and Samsung KNOX. Other vendors offer containerization software for ios and other operating systems. MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT Many organizations use MDM solutions that give IT control over the devices and help detect security threats. If your organization is using or planning to use MDM, it s important to investigate which devices and operating systems are compatible with your MDM solution. You ll also want to decide which segments will require MDM support, or if all devices accessing your corporate data will be required to connect through a management platform. 3

5 Beyond security, connectivity must be taken into account. Many companies we ve spoken with plan to roll out proprietary productivity and HR applications to coincide with their BYOD program adoption. They will need to decide whether to deploy the apps for multi-os use or limit them to one or two operating systems. Taking into account these considerations, here are some recommendations for a best-practice approach to device and operating system support: Limit support and accessibility to a few devices or operating systems. For example, some organizations will offer blanket support for any device running the ios or BlackBerry 10 operating system but limit or even deny support for Android devices. This is not about one operating system being better or more secure than another, but rather about improving IT productivity and device expertise. Require all staff, regardless of segment, to install your chosen MDM application on their device. Consider negotiating affinity plans with one or two carriers to help encourage employees to choose approved devices. 3. Which applications and issues will you support? Your BYOD support plan also needs to address which applications and issues will be supported. Again, employee segmentation plays a key role here. For example, with less mobile staff, it may make sense to offer support only for issues related to network access and installation of the MDM application. On the other hand, executives or heavy mobile users may be offered support for a wider range of applications and issues. The reality is that, unless you re supporting a tech or software firm, many of your employees will need help setting up even simple applications like , calendars and contacts. When looking at application support, it often helps to distinguish between essential productivity applications, such as and calendaring, and less essential applications such as internet browsers or instant messaging. However, limiting support to essential applications doesn t always lead to desired outcomes. These days, employees are much more likely to take advantage of nontraditional applications, such as cloud storage, file-sharing apps or collaboration tools. Unfortunately, some of these applications may pose security concerns. Stay in touch with the evolving needs of your employees, and recognize when there is a gap between their needs and the approved corporate applications. Rather than allowing employees free rein to choose their own (potentially harmful) applications, it s better to adapt. This means periodically reviewing your approved applications at the BYOD policy level, then introducing support for those applications across the organization. The issues you support should be addressed on an application-by-application basis. For example, you may extend full support for core productivity applications, but offer only setup support for others, relying on the application provider to provide additional support. 4. How you will deliver that support? Beyond deciding which employees, devices and applications you will support, you ll also need to address the following to have a workable BYOD support program: 4

6 TARGET SERVICE LEVELS With any IT support program, it s important to establish and maintain service levels for various support issues. It helps to prioritize the issues based on their potential security and productivity impact and establish target service levels accordingly. STAFF TRAINING With most BYOD support programs, an initial training period will be required for support staff. It s also essential to map out a program for ongoing training, so that support staff can stay abreast of changes to devices, operating systems and applications. SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE As we mentioned in the discussion about security, MDM software is an invaluable tool for BYOD support. Your MDM application plays a huge part in determining what s possible for your BYOD support program and how it will be delivered. For this reason, it s important to establish early on which applications or infrastructure will be available for the support program. OUTSOURCED VS. IN-HOUSE SUPPORT Thus far we have assumed a do-it-yourself approach to executing a BYOD support program, but there s also the option of outsourcing. Consider a managed BYOD solution that can support all devices and operating systems, and provide connectivity support regardless of carrier. An outsourced solution can give you the freedom to easily achieve security and productivity objectives, while still managing cost assurance and maximizing efficiencies. It will help you avoid tough compromises and offer up a more robust and secure BYOD support program. What s next? BYOD is still relatively new from an execution perspective, and many organizations are still searching for the best approach to support. While there are no hard rules to follow, the advice in this guide should help you develop a BYOD support program that covers all the bases. And, if you want more advice, please get in touch. solution experts are already helping many of Canada s largest businesses choose the right BYOD policies and support models to fit their changing needs. If you need help creating your BYOD support plan, contact your Account Representative or book an appointment. Visit our website for more information about BYOD solutions rogersm2mbusiness.com/byod 5

7 About helps medium and large businesses across Canada leverage the opportunities that come from connecting their people, assets, customers and networks to engage anyplace, anytime. Our expanding portfolio of solutions for the Connected Enterprise helps businesses enable their mobile workforce, monitor their fixed and mobile assets, manage their networks and suppliers, and build customer loyalty. We also offer a full suite of Professional and Managed Mobility Services to ensure that every implementation is successful and every solution expertly managed on an ongoing basis. All our enterprise solutions and services are backed by our award-winning Business Care. 6