Why a BYOT Culture is Great For Your Startup
Bring your own technology (BYOT) – also called bring your own device (BYOD) – is a culture whereby employees and workers are allowed to bring their own devices or tech to work instead of using those provided by the company or business. This practise is already making quite a remarkable impact on businesses worldwide, particularly in emerging, high-growth markets such as Brazil. Either way, the prevalence of smartphones, tablets, laptops and other personal tech devices in our daily lives has made possible previously unheard of business practises such as remote working and teleconferencing. Additionally, it is much harder nowadays for companies to prevent their employees and workers from bringing their own personal devices to work. Startups that take advantage of a BYOT work culture have much to gain, though they must take great care in implementing a workable BYOT policy that prevents data breaches and safeguards the integrity of their network.
By adopting a BYOT culture, one of the most obvious benefits is the cost savings that can be achieved if you were to allow your employees to bring their own devices to work instead of having to purchase new equipment. For one, there’s no expensive overhead expenses such as maintenance and repairs to worry about, since you don’t actually provide your employees with any official hardware or devices to work with. Personal devices are also often kept more up-to-date in comparison to their office counterparts since they are easier to manage and update whereas multiple office devices may take a much longer time to process. An added bonus is that you also don’t have to concern yourself with any of the licensing fees that come with buying enterprise software and applications that are needed for office devices. Since most workers are already quite familiar with how their personal devices operate, you also don’t have to spend precious time and money on training your workers for learning new apps or software, which in turn contributes to cost savings for your startup.
Certain global multinational companies and organizations believe that enabling their workers and employees to use their own personal devices at work has directly contributed to increased productivity gains. This may be the result of their employees being more familiar and comfortable with their own tech, thus making them more efficient and effective at doing their work. Indeed, some workers are expert navigators and users of their devices, being able to handle and finish otherwise time-consuming and difficult tasks efficaciously in a short period of time. Another possible contributing factor is that a BYOT work culture enables employees to be more confident and expressive of themselves as they are entrusted by the startup or company to handle their own work and tasks capably and responsibly in an independent manner. According to a study conducted by IBM, more than 80% of their employees and workers believe that smartphones play an important and vital part in business. Additionally, the same study indicates that a BYOT culture can lead to more employee satisfaction, cost savings and increased productivity.
Adopting a BYOT culture can be very beneficial for your startup, from cost savings to increased productivity gains. Nevertheless, a stringent and workable BYOT policy must be put in place in order to ensure that your data is safeguarded adequately and that the integrity of your network infrastructure is kept intact.
