Potential BYOD pratfalls highlighted in new webinar

Category: Mobile Work Force Tips

As more companies recognize the inherent benefits of instituting a bring your own device policy – employees use their personal devices to complete work-related tasks – more will want to figure out how they can best develop a policy of their own.

BYOD has numerous benefits, but if not integrated correctly and monitored appropriately, some companies may not actually get the most out of the policy as they could. 

An upcoming webinar aims to address these potential issues for the benefit of companies that employ field service professionals. Naeem Zafar, chief executive officer of Bitzer Mobile, will join Eric Klein, senior mobility analyst of VDC Research, to hold a webinar, which will discuss the opportunities and common mistakes with a BYOD initiative.

"In a bring your own device world, securing and controlling corporate data are critical concerns," Zafar said. "Typical solutions such as mobile device management (MDM) solutions and mobile VPN manage the device and access, respectively, but ignore the data which matters the most. While giving mobile access to employees has its risks, it can cut a company's costs, increase productivity and reduce hassle for IT. New methods for securing corporate data need to be explored that provide true, end-to-end solution."

The webinar is designed to educate business owners who want to provide a remote access point for their workers to retrieve and analyze sensitive information. The webinar will also look to the future and how next-generation tools will allow for the use of mobile devices like digital tablets, smartphones and laptops to improve services completed in the field.

The webinar will be especially useful for owners of businesses specializing in pest control, HVAC, plumbing and electrical work because these industries generally employ field service professionals who provide customer service on site but also must communicate effectively with their supervisor who may be off site.

Many of these professionals can use a BYOD policy hand-in-hand with new field service software to improve customer service offerings and speed up processes in the field. Employees can use their personal smartphones, equipped with the latest software solutions – to streamline service scheduling, accelerate invoice procedures and automate timesheet reporting. Add these benefits to the fact that business owners don't have to spend large sums of money on smartphones, and it's fairly easy to see why so many companies are moving toward BYOD initiatives.