BYOD and Unified Communications are a Dynamic Duo

Companies today around the East Coast are still attempting to clean up the huge mess made by hurricane Sandy. Luckily, a large chunk of these organizations workforces work remotely due largely in part to both unified communications and bring your own device initiatives, so while one employee may not have connectivity, others located halfway around the globe still do and there will no reduction in productivity levels.

While the use of mobile devices in an enterprise environment has been around for quite some time, the increasing demands placed upon company networks by these newly introduced devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops are continuing to prompt IT teams to revolutionize mobile programs within their firm.

“Today, employees want the ability to use the same gadgets they use at home for work. This phenomenon, which is sweeping across the private sector at a rapid rate, is called bring your own device (BYOD) and is changing the fundamental ways organizations communicate,” a recent blog post from unified communications provider Teo revealed.

Recent findings involving nearly 580 senior decision-makers around the world are revealing that companies tend to implement different forms of this trend. While around 25 percent of respondents revealed users must highlight which devices are permitted to access confidential information, 14 percent of those polled stated they closely analyze all of the products used on their corporate infrastructure. Additionally, 32 percent said they require employees to first have executives approve which gadgets they will be introducing into the network.

Arturo Medina from market research firm Ipsos added, "Make clear the boundaries of sensitive information and user information, as well as what gets backed up as corporate info and what is considered personal information."

Multiple challenges associated with BYOD can be easily overcome with a little help from its friend unified communications. UC is the driving force users turn to when requiring access to information from any device, no matter where they happen to be located and the time of day or night it is. This platform is extremely scalable and hosted via the cloud, allowing systems to grow as new devices are added.

Additionally, SMBs are increasingly migrating to UC-based solutions as a means of significantly slashing costs, driving productivity and raising efficiency to an all time high level.

"Small and medium-sized businesses need sophisticated communications that should be easy to manage and use and affordable to implement in order to drive efficiency and productivity leading to more informed, faster business decisions that grow revenues and improve time to market," Expert Ray Tekse stated.