Ferrum Technology Services Blog

Businesses are always trying to improve on efficiency, and one method they use to do so is mobile technology. Businesses invest in mobile technology like smartphones, laptops, and data plans for their employees with the expectation that it will help them be more productive, but the fact of the matter is that these investments are costly for the return. There is another approach businesses use: Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, and it’s a great way to save capital while achieving the same levels of productivity from mobile technology.

Organizations are always trying to get more efficient. One way that businesses are able to accomplish this is by utilizing mobile computing. This used to mean that businesses would have to spend a bunch of money purchasing phones, data plans, and the like for their employees. Some time ago, businesses started to realize that they could improve their mobile strategies without this massive expense by enacting a BYOD policy. Let’s discuss what a BYOD policy is and how it does more than just save a business money. 

Think how much has changed in the past 20 years. The Internet went from dial-up to broadband. Cellular networks have brought computing to more people through the use of computers that fit in your pocket. These mobile devices have changed the way that we communicate, changed the way business works, and changed the way we go about our daily lives. Let’s talk about how mobile is the predominant type of computing being used in society today.

Network security is not the easiest thing to implement for your business, and you definitely need someone trained in this topic to be the one behind the wheel. Thankfully, the correct solutions can make this much easier to pull off. Here are some of the best and most important security solutions you should be considering for your organization.

While smartphones can help businesses quite a bit, they can also be quite detrimental to their success. If you can get past the issues related to employees bringing their own devices to the workplace, then you’ll be able to save a considerable amount of time and money doling out mobile devices. However, you will need to make sure you have a mobile device management policy put in place so that you can control how those mobile endpoints interact with your business’ standing infrastructure and data.

Productivity. Your company needs it. Your employees are measured largely by their ability to effectively turn their effort into a tangible product or service that creates revenue. In short, it means everything to your business. Why then, if it is so necessary, is it so hard to get the people you depend on to realize just how important their productivity is to the success of the business? This month we will talk about what makes a business productive, and what technology will mitigate the major barriers to productivity.

Bring Your Own Device has a lot of benefits for businesses, chief among them being giving your users the opportunity to use their own devices for work rather than those provided to them. More often than not, they will benefit from easy-to-use apps on their preferred devices, allowing them to get more done throughout the workday. When you implement BYOD, though, there are various concepts that you have to consider in order to ensure productivity, flexibility, security, and profitability.

Mobile devices are one of the greatest tools available for business use today. However, because society has come to rely so much on mobile devices, these devices have become a treasure trove for cybercriminals to obtain information from. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over some simple ways to protect yourself from such threats.

For the modern business, having a strategy to manage your employees smartphone use is essential. This is because most of the people that work for you have smartphones. One study shows that upwards of 90 percent of people under 30 own a smartphone. If you have any design on running a business, or employing millennials (who are the largest generation in the current workforce), you’ll need to know what you are doing to protect your business from the increasing amount of threats that are out there targeting smartphones.

Google’s Android line of smart devices have made their presence well-known in the business world. Google now offers a zero-touch enterprise solution for its Pixel-line mobile devices. The primary reason for this is that mobile devices are somewhat time-consuming to set up, especially on the business level. You can save time by pre-configuring these devices for your business to use using Pixel’s zero-touch solution.

While mobile devices like smartphones and laptops have allowed modern employees to keep up with their workload and improve flexibility, they are also a significant threat to your organization’s data. Therefore, you need to consider how these mobile devices will affect your business’s IT strategy. Even if you haven’t, it’s likely that someone in your organization has considered it.

Having mobile devices in the workplace can be tricky. While these devices greatly enhance flexibility, at the same time, mobile devices can leave your network unsecure if the proper precautions aren’t taken. To help you better manage the mobile devices connecting to your network, be sure to take advantage of these three mobile features.

Remote Wiping
One major drawback of mobile devices is how they can all too easily become lost or stolen. Obviously, if this were to happen to a device with sensitive company information stored on it, then you’d have good reason to panic. However, if the misplaced device was equipped with a cloud-based, remote wiping feature, you could then take action and wipe the device of its critical information before it’s too late.

Whitelisting and Blacklisting Applications
There are many malicious mobile apps out there that can deal great harm to your business. The risk can range from an app siphoning sensitive information to hackers, to having a device become compromised and enlisted in a mobile botnet. Security problems like these can be easily prevented if these apps are blocked from installing on the mobile device in the first place. This is achieved with a mobile device management solution that’s equipped to allow a network administrator the ability to whitelist and blacklist applications. As a bonus, this feature allows apps to be blocked on company devices that hinder productivity.

Actually, when it comes to mobile devices accessing corporate information, it’s a best practice to not allow users to download apps without first clearing the app with IT. When it comes to malicious apps, they’re designed to look like the real deal and have been known to fool even experienced users. Subsequently, when an IT professional oversees the installation of mobile apps, they’re able to adequately test the app for any security risks and then clear it for passage.

Cloud Syncing
For any business utilizing mobile devices, cloud syncing is the glue that holds every mobile strategy together. Without this feature, different versions of the same file would exist across multiple devices and manually syncing these files would be more work than what it’s worth. With cloud syncing, every edit to every version of every file is automatically saved and synced in the cloud. This allows your staff to collaborate in real-time using all of their various devices. Therefore, if you’re thinking about adopting mobile technology for your business, you’ll want to select cloud offerings that provide your business with the flexibility you need to succeed.

Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, continues to grow into one of the most accepted practices within an organization. Yet, one major problem has always plagued BYOD in the form of security. Thankfully, with the help of mobile device management, businesses are able to minimize this risk while leveraging the benefits that BYOD offers.

More often than not, it’s always recommended that you use a solid password to optimize your online accounts. However, just because passwords are critical, doesn’t mean that you should put all your eggs in one basket. Passwords should only be the start of a comprehensive online account security setup.

With so many great mobile devices at your team’s disposal, it’d be a shame to not allow them to use their devices in the workplace. This trend, known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), has been taking the workplace by storm, and offers a great way to enhance productivity both in and out of the office. BYOD, while a great asset, should only be approached with caution, as the slightest oversight could expose sensitive information to the world.

Some businesses embrace Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies in the workplace, while others aren’t so sure. If you think that employers are the only ones worried about BYOD policies, you might be surprised to learn that employees are just as concerned about it as their employers. Of course, their reasons are entirely different, but are still valid reasons to be on edge.

Just for one second, try to imagine your life without your personal mobile device. Mobile devices has pervaded our very existence, and they are integral tools for connecting to your business’s network. But even with this colossal amount of data on the device, some people still manage to lose them. What would happen if your smartphone fell into the hands of one of your competitors, or even a hacker?

Two hot trends in the business technology industry are companies going Green (adopting environmentally savvy work environments), and implementing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) system for your office. In reality, these two trends go hand in hand, as they seek to use technology to increase efficiency in the everyday operation of businesses worldwide. Here's how to implement your company's Green campaign with BYOD.

One of the hottest trends in business technology is having employees bring in their personal devices to the office for work purposes. This trend is commonly referred to as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and before you blindly follow the trend and allow BYOD for your business, you should first weigh the benefits against the risks.