#BYOD or NOT BYOD?

We still hear about BYOD in the MMS (Managed Mobility Services) world, even though the perpetuated ethos is against it. Nonetheless, it is still a debate and there were a couple of developments worth pointing out as we survey the past year, not the least of which was the August proceeding with the Los Angeles Superior Court in Cochran vs. Schwan (No. BC449547). While it was ostensibly about the decision whether or not to give it class action status, the long and short of it is that employers can be mandated to reimburse employees for using their personal phones. Granted, we already knew this ethically but it’s a bit more official now.

The real lesson is not just the court case, but to relive some of the key benefits of avoiding BYOD, a question we are often asked when discussing MMS. So let’s list them out again and take a closer look.

1) Control Over Key Business Data. Whether it’s a sales person who tries to take his # to a competitor when he quits, or simply an operational person who has hundreds of venders, clients and internal company contacts, it’s impossible to downplay the importance of keeping certain mobile #s and data.

2) Device Merry Go Rounds: Countless aspects to device politics, “I want the new iphone 6” and mysteriously broken units, multiple OS platforms – avoid it all by having a unified approach with device standards. Swap against active devices to solve broken/lost phones to save money as well.

3) Know Where and When, Guilt Free: You want to get ahold of your critical mobile worker. In a BYOD environment how accountable is he to pay his bill, to take his phone with him, and be responsive? Remove the questions by avoiding BYOD, and don’t feel the least bit bad burning “his” minutes – they’re yours anyway.

4) Provide a Nice Benefit for Minimal Cost: Generally discouraged, but let’s say this employee uses their device for personal minutes/texts/data. With many new carrier plan offerings including unlimited minutes and texts, and w/ the industry wide average still under one Gigabyte of data per user, consider letting that be a nice work perk for minimal (if any) significant financial loss to you.

5) Security and Related Issues: We mentioned the actual device # above, and multiple OS, but that does not even scratch the surface of security threats. Trying to instill and maintain security across BYOD platforms is playing with fire and can easily be avoided.

6) Net Cost Savings: You may think you are saving money with a monthly reimbursement vs. company paid device, but when you factor in pooled savings, negotiating power and soft costs – you are not saving money with BYOD.

All of this aside from the dicey issue raised in Cochran vs. Schwan mainly – when it comes to whether or not you are in the right to lean on your employees personal devices, why even dance around the edge of the boiling legal cauldron like that? Remove grey area by avoiding BYOD, which circumvents a few critical pitfalls and also brings on some nice advantages.

Oh, and if you have a grey cloud over your head regarding who should or should not have a mobile device to begin with (one problem BYOD backers often point to) try to keep this in mind: you’ll know exactly who needs a phone after reviewing a couple months’ worth of detailed invoices.

Thank you 2014 for helping confirm what we already knew, and saving us from a hard lesson!

If you have questions about BYOD, MMS, please email [email protected]