Technology growth spurs BYOD adoption

As little as five years ago, an employee in the field would be carrying a laptop and cell phone – mostly likely a BlackBerry. Than in January of 2007, Steve Jobs – the late Apple CEO – took the stage at the MacWorld convention and unveiled the original iPhone to the world. Since then multiple smartphones and tablets have hit the marketplace and become as versatile as the laptops that workers traveled with five years ago.

As technology has advanced, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices have changed as well. Smartphones and tablets are becoming commonplace and have changed from fun gadgets consumers show off into important business tools. Good Technology conducted a survey and found that more than 70 percent of organizations have implemented some version of a BYOD policy.

Accellion – a file sharing security company – released a whitepaper that describes how BYOD and mobile worker trends have evolved.

“Road warriors and mobile workers – salespeople, business development managers, field technicians, and other users who spend most of their time on the road – remain as important as ever,” the report reads. “Even in the age of social networks and 3G connectivity, face-to-face meetings and on-site visits remain indispensable for many aspects of business.”

The reports goes on to mention that it is not only the devices that employees use that have evolved but how and where they use them. Wireless internet can be found at a number of establishments and the 3G or 4G capabilities of today’s gadgets mean employees are rarely out of touch. Smart phones and tablets can also handle many different applications and media types.

Companies in Ohio that have BYOD policies or are looking to invest in one because of new technology would be wise to partner with an IT consulting firm.

From our offices in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, PRO OnCall is your single-source technology consulting service, offering managed IT support, unified communications solutions and on-call IT support.