18 TRENDS

Photography: Jonas Mertens

ALEXANDER JANSSENS
...is a consultant at TOPdesk Belgium bvba. In this article, he explains the BYOD phenomenon and how it can be used in practice.

Text: Milou Snaterse

TRENDS 19

BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE

BYOD (bring your own device) is no longer a trend: it has become a reality. More and more employees are taking their own devices to the office for professional use. The question is no longer whether you should use BYOD, but how you should use it.
What is BYOD?
A growing number of employees has access to the latest smart phones, laptops and tablets. In fact, office equipment often cannot compete with employees own devices. This is one of the reasons that employees use their own devices for professional purposes. Personal devices are mostly used to check emails and calendars or handle calls, but also to access important company applications.

Impact on the IT infrastructure

Most IT managers are not enthusiastic about BYOD. Is it possible to safeguard company data if employees use their own devices? It is clear that the IT infrastructure will have to be adjusted if you decide to introduce BYOD. It is important to ensure that confidential data remains confidential, says Alexander Janssens. Organizations do not want to make their entire internal network available to everyone. Using more mobile devices can also affect the mobile infrastructure. The data centre needs to be prepared for this. Desktop virtualization can provide a solution, explains Janssens. Desktop virtualization lets organizations centralize desktops and applications, and support and protect devices from one location. This will resolve any safety issues. Either way, it is clear that changes to the infrastructure are necessary and will require maintenance.

Supporting your colleagues

BYOD will also affect your organizations service management. To what extent will you support your employees? Which devices will you support? Your organization can decide to only support basic services, such as email. However, it may also be worthwhile to support important services such as applications that generate turnover: a CRM system or service management applications. Additionally, you could grant your employees access to extra services, such as the intranet or even the entire network. Theoretically, you could tell your employees that they cannot use their own devices and that they are

20 TRENDS

IS IT STILL POSSIBLE TO SAFEGUARD COMPANY DATA?

Alexander Janssens - TOPdesk Belgium bvba

therefore not supported, says Janssens. However, it turns out that people use their own equipment for professional services, regardless of whether or not it is permitted within their organization. Granting your employees access to basic services and a number of crucial extra services provides excellent support, and prevents you from having to tackle tricky issues. Your organization will have better control over the course of BYOD issues by providing support for at least a selection of devices.

a BYOD policy. Register who can use which devices, and to what extent. Indicate who is responsible if a device is damaged or lost, or if confidential data is lost. You will also need to determine who will have to pay licence costs, and the levels of support the user can expect. However, a good policy is not enough: you will also need to train your employees. You will have to ensure that your employees know how to handle the policy, new processes and software. It is especially important to train the IT department, so that they can provide support for the various devices.

Tip 1 | Attention for BYOD users Create an attention on the person card of BYOD users. This lets the service desk know straight away whether an incoming incident has been logged by a caller who uses a personal device. It also enables you to analyse incidents relating to BYOD users. Tip 2 | BYOD-specific information in the Knowledge Base Expand the Knowledge Base with BYODspecific information. This will let your users search for information relating to guidelines, operating systems and suggestions for buying materials, etc.

A clear BYOD policy

Many organizations IT policies are not yet attuned to BYOD. This means that companies will have to spend time considering the phenomenon: after all, you will need to take precautions against privacy and security risks. That is why it is important to formulate a clear and effective policy as quickly as possible. Janssens explains the criteria for

BYOD and TOPdesk

TOPdesk can provide support if your IT organization decides to take BYOD into account. But how can your organization use personal devices in combination with TOPdesk? We have compiled a number of tips:

Tip 3 | Include personal devices in the CMDB Expand your CMDB with a number of generic objects such as a BYOD tablet and a BYOD smart phone. This will help you gain insight into the number of BYOD incidents per product group.

Did you know?

88%

of managers indicate that their employees use their own devices.

73%

of CIOs make employees using their own devices a priority within their organization.

60%

of companies have adjusted their IT infrastructure to accommodate employees using their own devices.

Source: research by Wakefield Research, commissioned by Avanada, January 2012