Create Thy Policy before Procuring Technology – This step couldn’t be more important. Having your policy set in place is crucial to having a successful deployment of any management technology.
Seek the Flocks Devices – Understanding what devices your users have, and how many they use is very important. If you don’t do your due diligence, you will have a network built for 250 devices, and have 500 devices connection to it.
Enrollment Shall Be Simple – Keeping it simple should be a cornerstone of every rollout, especially with BYOD. Users shouldn’t have to break a sweat to enroll a device and configure it. This however should not interfere with your corporate or IT policies.
Thou Shalt Configure Devices Over-the-Air – Neither IT nor your users have the time to configure devices one by one. Over the air setup is really the only way you can get anything done efficiently.
Give Thy Users Self-Service – This ties in with the time savings of the last item, but also allows them to perform their own password resets, locate a lost device, wipe a lost device remotely, and other functions.
Hold Sacred Personal Information – Keeping personal information private is important to keeping your user’s trust. Make clear your policies on the sharing and viewing of personal data including emails, contacts, calendars, text messages, call history, and voicemails.
Part the Seas of Corporate and Personal Data – There is a fine line between work and personal when using your own device at work, so it is up to you to make that line clear. Finding a middle ground that is agreeable for both IT and for users is key. IT should be backing up and protecting corporate apps and files, but not user’s personal files like pictures and videos.
Manage Thy Data Usage – If you are footing the bill for the mobile data, make sure you set a data limit, setup automatic connection to WiFi, or only pay a stipend to users for a certain amount. Give them a warning though if they are about to go over, otherwise you will end up with angry employees.
Monitor Thy Flock – Make sure devices are up to standards. Make sure you check for devices that are out of compliance due to missing updates, out of date OS versions, or unacceptable software. These can be fixed with remote wipes or a text message asking to perform the updates/remove the software.
Drink from the Fountain of ROI – Remember that what worked for your last company may not work for this one. Each company is unique and needs its own model, but with a little preparation, BYOD can increase efficiency.