How To Implement and Manage a BYOD Policy (and Keep IT Happy)

Implementing a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy for your organization can be extremely beneficial, but if not done correctly can also cause several problems. One of the main reasons that companies implement BYOD is to lower their costs associated with purchasing a large number of computers or tablets.

Many security issues can arise, as well as an increase in time spent by the IT department on setting up and monitoring all of the employee’s devices. Though BYOD may lower costs of technology, if not implemented correctly it can actually result in higher costs in areas such as the time and support from the IT department.

It’s important to correctly set up and manage your BYOD implementation right from the beginning.

Here are several ways your organization can get the most out of a BYOD policy while easily managing the risks:

Set Up a BYOD Policy From the Beginning:

Set Up Guidelines and Rules

By drawing up a set of rules right from the beginning, your employees will know exactly what’s expected from them, leaving little room for confusion. These rules will also allow the organization to define any repercussions if employees misuse or take advantage of the use of the BYOD policy.

Set Guidelines for the Types of Devices Allowed

One of the top issues with BYOD policies is that there are many different types, brands, operating systems, and more for devices.

When employees register their device with the company, they then expect the IT department to support it and resolve any issues with the device, which can be a headache for any IT department.

An organization needs to set, right from the beginning, which types and brands of devices they are going to support.

Implement a Mobile IAM Solution in Conjunction with BYOD

Easily Set Up and Manage Devices

In addition to all employee accounts, admins will now also have to set up and register all employee devices. In the beginning especially, there is a large influx of new devices that need to be added, which is extremely time consuming if it is done manually.

Mobile IAM solutions allow admins to easily add new devices by simply adding them in Active Directory. If desired, they can also allow users to register their devices themselves. End users simply fill out a web form that is set up for a work flow request, which will then be automatically be sent to the appropriate manager or department for approval.

Once the company decides which devices they are going to support, this can be set up in their mobile IAM solution. When a user then tries to register a device, only those that the company supports will be able to be registered.

Securing the Company’s Infrastructure

Since employees will keep their device once they leave the organization (because they own it!), there is the potential for them to have continued access company data.

Companies need to ensure that when an employee leaves they no longer have access to the company’s network and data. Though the solution seems simple–disable the user from the system and applications they have access to–this often, more times than not, goes unnoticed and the user remains active.

This is because IT needs to be notified of the employees leave and then manually disable them from all systems and applications individually. If an IAM solution is implemented, once an employee leaves the organization a manager can automatically disable the user’s access and deactivate their access to the network, ensuring the security of the company’s data.

By following these guideline organizations can hopefully gain the most out of BYOD while mitigating the risks that can potentially occur.


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Reducing Organizational Costs by Eliminating Costly Mistakes

One of the major topics constantly on the minds of organizational leaders is, “How can I reduce costs?” Many times this is in terms of direct costs, such as employees and materials, as managers tend to look at employees’ salaries, materials, etc., used in day-to-day activities.

Frequently overlooked is the amount of time and money that goes into other aspects of running the business that cannot be physically seen. These include such things as the management of accounts, passwords, applications and other solutions. While not at first noticeable, these costs can add up, and there are ways in which expenditures can easily be reduced. If management and leaders sit down and actually add up how much it is costing them to manage employee accounts and passwords, the cost can be astonishing. Not only is the waste physical dollars, but can also be hours spent on processes that can be made more efficient.

The following are just a few of the common ways that an organization may be wasting money, as well as the actions that can be taken to easily reduce these cost wastes.

Account and Access Management Costs

Account and access management is a task that may be costing an organization more money than previously thought. In many cases, multiple staff members focus solely on provisioning, making changes and de-provisioning accounts throughout the year. Often, this is because these tasks are performed manually for each employee’s account, and while it is not difficult, they are extremely time-consuming tasks.

Frequently if there are a large number of employees beginning employment at a company, provisioning accounts in all the correct systems and applications for each employees can take hours. Then there is the issue of temporary or contract employees. Organizations who have employees who are only there for a short amount of time, and have frequent movement, spend much time provisioning, changing and de-provisioning these accounts. They need to ensure that these temporary employees have the access they need to perform their jobs while they are there, but then also that they are promptly disabled once they are no longer working for the company.

If there are full-time employees handling these account management actions, chances are they are highly experienced and trained and high-earning IT employees handing these task. Essentially, organizations are paying technical employees to perform these simple tasks.

In addition to the expenses of manual account management, access management may be costing organizations more money than is necessary. Between the provisioning, de-provisioning and movement of accounts, one item that tends to get overlooked is exactly who has access to what, who actually needs access to certain systems and applications and how many accounts are left active that need not to be. So, for example, companies may be paying for more license costs for an expensive application than are actually needed. Or even worse, they may be paying for accounts for people who no longer even work for the organization. These are all costs that might look minimal but when added up, are costing companies a substantial amount of money.




Password Management

Another major source of money waste is with the management of passwords. META Group research, conducted on behalf of PricewaterhouseCoopers, concluded that helpdesk tickets for password resets cost annually $60.93 per employee and 45 percent of all helpdesk calls are for password resets.

This doesn’t take into account the cost of time of employees who have to deal with password resets. Think about the time it takes for both the end user and the IT employee to reset a password.  Everyone is familiar with how annoying it is when they forget their password. You need to stop what you are doing to call the helpdesk, who in turn create a helpdesk ticket and manually reset your password. In addition to the annoyance, it has a negative impact on customer service if this happens to an employee when they are assisting one of your customers.

Though it is not a highly technical task, it takes time away from the both the end user and help desk employee, time which could be used doing something more productive.

Cost Saving Solutions

So how can these costs be reduced without a huge implementation of an expensive solution? First, let’s take a look at the account management issues. Something as simple as a solution that automates the account management process can save a great deal of money. By automating the account management process, highly technical staff no longer has to handle tasks that can easily be performed by other employees. The task can be easily delegated to a less technical helpdesk staff member or other employees in the company. With an automated account management solution, less technical employees can easily manage employee accounts using a secure form. They simply enter or make changes to an employee account in Active Directory, and the changes are automatically made in the connected systems and applications. Instead of having to manually create, change or disable accounts, the employee in charge of account management can just enter the information into the pre-set form so it is easier, and errors become less likely.

This is also beneficial when it comes to license costs. Instead of paying for accounts for employees that are no longer with the company, an automated account management solution allows you to simply check a box in the employee’s profile and all accounts are automatically disabled. Many solutions also provide an overview of access rights. This allows managers to see exactly who has access to what systems and applications to ensure they are paying for the correct number of licenses. If, say, there are any errors in access rights, an automated account management solution allows them to easily be corrected.

So what about the password resets? The easy solution to this is a self-service password reset solution.  Just like on many banking websites, numerous organizations have been implementing password reset solutions for their employees to use in the work setting. Employees simply enroll by providing answers to several challenge questions and when they need to reset a password the user simply provides the correct answer to the questions and are able to easily and securely reset their passwords without having to contact the IT department. This one small solution can save an organization hundreds or thousands of dollars each year, as well as alleviate many headaches for organizational leaders.

These simple solutions are both cost efficient and allow organizations to easily reduce costs for otherwise costly processes that often take up a large amount of time.

For more information, please visit our website; www.tools4ever.com