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Four Steps to Staying Safe in the BYOD Workplace

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Embrace the BYOD workplace, and plan appropriate security measures.The mobility of the workforce has completely exploded in recent years. Productivity gains, more options for remote work, constant availability, and better communication are all perks of the BYOD movement. However, it doesn’t come without drawbacks.

Hackers have found the BYOD movement to be an easy target. For the cybercriminal, mobile devices offer an “in” to the organization’s system. All is not lost, though. With a few key steps, you can keep your organization safe.

1. Educate
Ignorance is probably the biggest obstacle. Employees don’t normally show up to a job with everything they need to know about cybersecurity. If they’re not properly educated, they’re likely to fall victim to a phishing scam on their personal devices, which opens your system’s doors to the hackers.

Make it company policy to follow safeguards, such as never clicking on a link from an unknown person.

2. Monitor
You should be invested in bringing in the latest technology that helps you monitor what’s going on with your system. The right technology will provide you with the visibility you need to spot suspicious activity. This gives you the ability to stop an attack before anything too serious occurs. Furthermore, it can help you plan for tying up the loose/weak areas in your system.

3. Best Practices
Organizations that follow best practices are at less risk for attacks through the BYOD workplace. For example, require that all mobile devices being used on your network be password-protected and screen locked when not in use. If a device is ever lost or stolen, make it a requirement to notify the company, because the majority of lost devices are accessed, either to discover the identity of the owner or to pull data from the device.

4. Control Access
Instead of assigning network user rights to an employee account, the user rights should be assigned a role. General users shouldn’t have access to every piece of data in the company. Keep highly sensitive information for upper management only. Also, if your IT employees have access to everything, make sure they know their BYOD use should be kept separate.

At Access Tech, our goal is to make sure our clients are protected, yet not at the expense of productivity. We’re focused on making sure our clients have the best technology for their communications needs. Contact us today and let’s talk about how to put you in touch with the right technology and best security practices.

Thinking Cost Savings Beyond Mobile Expense Management Systems

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The mobile workforce is growing, with more than half of all workers reporting that they work out of the office at least part of the time. As a result, managing the costs of a fleet of mobile devices is becoming a priority for IT, and many are investing in mobile expense management systems. It’s important not to stop there. Controlling costs related to mobile devices takes a broader strategy:

Automation: As with any IT concern, automation creates the greatest cost savings; yet many enterprises continue to engage in hours of work related to move-add-change-delete (MACD) tasks. These can be tracked and sent to the mobile expense management system automatically, removing delays and human error from the process. Automation also catches otherwise-overlooked resource updates that can rack up costs over time. MACDs can be automated through the enterprise’s procurement and fulfillment systems so that they are fed through to the mobile expense management system as automated tasks.

Contract negotiations: It’s common for organizations to take a reactive approach to contract negotiations, only evaluating the terms of the contract when it’s nearly time to renew. This gives the vendor a bit of an upper hand, and leaves the organization scrambling to see if it’s possible to make the necessary changes, but without a viable alternative ready if the vendor won’t meet their needs.

It’s in the organization’s best interests to begin evaluating the terms of the contract well in advance of renewal time, and the best option is to get all contracts on the same timeline. This allows IT to set up a plan that implements a calendar for evaluating options and preparing for negotiations in a way that streamlines the process.

Mergers or acquisitions: It’s generally standard practice for the acquired company to align with the mobile policies of the organization that’s purchasing them, but it can be a mistake not to take a better look at the mobile policy. The acquired company may have advantageous terms on their contracts or they may have implemented mobile expense management techniques that could benefit the bigger organization.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): BYOD programs are growing as enterprises see the benefits of allowing employees to use the device they’re most comfortable with and saving money on device ownership and maintenance. Regulations are likely to take shape as employees are beginning to demand some company reimbursement for the use of their private phones for work, and organizations are facing possible challenges related to how they manage security in a BYOD program without infringing too much on personal use. BYOD programs look appealing right now, but they could become costly in the future.

Your organization has unique telecommunications needs, and Access Tech can help you meet them in a cost-effective way. Contact us for more information.

Future Growth of VoIP Expected Because of Three Important Technologies

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Like many other technologies gathering speed, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is increasing its reach through the success of other advances. While many enterprises are embracing VoIP on its own merit, there are additional reasons the technology is becoming more widespread.

While early adopters experienced some quality concerns with VoIP, the problems have been largely ironed out and VoIP is expected to grow substantially into 2021. Along with becoming a highly cost-effective, reliable communications strategy, VoIP has also received some additional boost in adoption because of three main factors:

A growing mobile workforce: Employers are learning that they can significantly reduce costs by allowing employees to work remotely, which also helps attract the best talent in a competitive market. The need to access company systems and data from anywhere, at anytime is lending momentum to the rise of VoIP. Employees expect a seamless experience in any technology environment.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs: There are a lot of benefits to allowing employees to use their own devices for work purposes. It saves the enterprise from purchasing and updating expensive mobile devices and allows employees the convenience of working on the type of smartphone or tablet that they prefer, rather than learning a new device. Employees are also more productive when they can access the information they need, when they need it.

BYOD programs require the high-quality connectivity that’s available through VoIP. Thus the popularity of these programs equals more interest in installing VoIP. While a little over half of companies currently support BYOD programs, that number is expected to increase in the future.

Better hotspot coverage: The benefits of VoIP come into clear focus when it comes to connectivity for video or voice in a remote area. In the past, the persistence of poor connectivity due to the bandwidth restrictions of most business networks and the coverage areas of wireless routers have limited the quality.

Over the next few years, 5G will be introduced in urban areas, and 3G and 4G will be extended to even the most remote parts of the country. Wireless technology is also advancing, strengthening its signals over larger geographic areas and even providing connectivity in previously unavailable locations, like subways and elevators. Experts predict that home hotspots will improve to be able to provide the gigabyte speeds previously only available from a cell tower, allowing for superior data transmissions that support quality voice communications.

At ACR Solutions, we specialize in finding the most efficient and cost-effective solutions for your enterprise’s telecommunications needs. We oversee the deployment and management of your services, providing superior support to your team. Contact us for more information about VoIP.

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