BYOD practices desirable for SMB IT departments

Technology has become the great equalizer in the corporate world. The latest strategies are helping small and midsized businesses (SMBs) keep pace with larger enterprises. Innovations like mobile devices, cloud technology and virtualization are letting SMBs do more with less.

Spicework – an online community of IT professionals – has released a its annual State of SMB IT Spending. Compiled from a survey of 1,356 IT professionals, the study is held every six months and focuses on what IT departments have invested in and what they plan to spend money on.

According to the survey, the average IT budget has increased to $162,000, the highest in the four-year history of the report. There is also an interesting correlation between number of employees and the money spent on technology per worker. Smaller companies with less than 20 headcount are spending more per employee ($1,900 on average) than larger companies with over 250 workers ($700).

The report also looked at specific investments and not surprising, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) technology tops the list, even if it does bring deployment challenges. Seventy percent of SMBs announced they will be supporting some form of BYOD initiative.

“With the launch of the original iPad and the swarm of tablets that followed coupled with the huge increase in smartphone usage by the average person, more and more devices are getting into the hands of users, which translates into bigger headaches for IT,” said a Spiceworks user quoted in the report.

Many businesses can benefit from some form of mobile device adoption. Companies in Ohio that are looking improve BYOD strategies would be wise to partner with an IT consulting firm.

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