In today’s tech-centric workplace, everyone has a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Some people (understandably so) bring these devices from home and use them in the office on the company network. Some companies promote this behavior, some companies prohibit this behavior, why? Along with great benefits come great risks. On the plus side, companies don’t have to provide these devices to their employees, employees get to comfortably work with their own machines and because of this productivity tends to increase. On the minus side, the risk of harming the company network increases dramatically, IT departments have to bolster security and compatibility issues between personal devices and company equipment can become a problem.
So how do you prepare your company to promote a BYOD environment? When considering a BYOD friendly policy, you must first consider network security. Veraview offers complete network security that can restrict access to designated webpages as well as provide anti-virus support to company equipment. Blocking access to websites on your network ensures that personal devices are being used for business only while connected to the company network. In addition to network security, you must also consider compatibility and wireless connectivity. Most personal devices use Wi-Fi, meaning you may need additional wireless access points (WAPs) as well as wireless presentation capabilities in your conference rooms. To satisfy these needs Veraview offers a range of Wi-Fi signal boosters and routers. With regards to wireless presentation we offer a nifty device called the Crestron AirMedia. The AirMedia allows people to wirelessly share content from laptops and smartphones directly to a conference room display. This is becoming quite popular as new devices are oftentimes built without older analog inputs needed to interface with old conference room equipment.
For those of you who have not adopted a BYOD policy, fear not! We have many collaboration tools to increase your company’s productivity, from video conferencing to web-presence and instant messaging we do it all. Whether you have a current project, are adopting a BYOD policy or just want to talk about cost effective ways to upgrade your conference room, do yourself a favor and get in touch with Veraview today!