In the old days of business, a company phone referred to a land line phone that would likely be found at the desk of an employee, never leaving the area where it was stationed. But then came the advent of cell phones, and many companies quickly began to make the switch to providing their employees with these portable devices so that they could more conveniently handle work related matters that had to be dealt with over the phone. Now, with technology continuing to advance more and more all the time, regular cell phones like the ones first issued by companies years ago are considered to be an obsolete form of this prominent technology. The Internet has become such an essential resource in the daily lives of people that there is a major shift towards cell phones necessitating Internet access, which has led to the abundant production and use of smartphones. Because employers want their employees to be able to do their jobs as efficiently as possible, many companies have begun requiring their employees to use smartphones for work purposes, but having them provide their own devices.

Company programs that have employees provide their own smartphones are known as bring your own device programs, or BYOD. Bring in your own device programs are considered to be effective for companies because they have been known to lead to greater productivity, less paperwork, added visibility, streamlined workflow, and more accurate billing and record keeping. These programs can also promote better work communication, as statistics have shown that 70 percent of people who use smartphones will check their work email outside of their regular work hours.

Bring your own device management can be difficult for some companies however, with Byod mobile security being a big issue. With so much company data on each smartphone, the loss or stealing of an employee smartphone can be quite detrimental to a company. A BYOD strategy some bring your own device management services may suggest would be to require employees to password protect their phones in order to prevent data being compromised if the phone ends up in the wrong hands. Some services offer bring your own device management using what is known as a cloud, which is considered to be a convenient, secure, scalable approach. Managing devices with a cloud can help companies manage installed applications, secure company data, and also manage passwords and restrict data in the event that a phone is lost or stolen. Good references here.