Many companies today have implemented a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for their employees. More than 50% of businesses have implemented as of the end of 2017, according to Gartner. A company needs to make lots of decisions when putting into place a BYOD company policy. These include security concerns, data ownership, and possible loss of productivity with personal applications mixing with business. While many solutions exist to support large enterprise rollout of BYOD policies, small and medium businesses tend to form ad hoc policies to address their most pressing issues. According to SecureEdge Networks, 80% of all BYOD is entirely unmanaged.
Potential BYOD Issue
An often-overlooked consequence of a BYOD policy is one of the most basic; an employee-owned device has an employee-owned phone number. In many client-facing roles, it is the only phone number employees give out, especially if it’s on their business cards. That phone number often becomes the way people contact your company and is under the ownership of your employee. If that sales rep leaves and takes a position at your largest competitor, clients calling to place their order with their favorite sales rep reach them at their new company.
How Unified Communications Supports BYOD
Unified Communications can solve this issue with some very simple best practices. At the most basic, you can assign a DID or direct inward dial number then forward that number to the employee’s mobile. Then, you print the DID on business cards. Simultaneous ring, or sim-ring, is a feature common to many UC services. A user’s desk phone gets an assigned DID that can ring their mobile or any other specified number. So, a user can be reached their desk or away from the office.
So, what about when users want to make an outbound call. Will it display their mobile number? The simple answer is yes, but many UC providers provide a softphone application for iOS and Android smartphones. For those that don’t, they often support a third-party softphone application like Bria or Zoiper. When using a softphone application, calls will display their work DID number and not the employees’ mobile number. So if you follow these best practices, your BYOD policy and company communications can successfully coexist.
Interested in learning more?
Check out our article on other ways Unified Communications can support the mobile workforce.
Also, visit our “Ultimate Guide To UCaaS” to learn more about other benefits of Unified Communications.
About Level365: Level365 offers a complete Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution with enterprise voice customized and scalable for your business. Our service seamlessly integrates communication among desk phones, computers, and mobile devices to support remote teams and provide flexibility for on-campus staff. The UC platform extends beyond voice communications with Unified Messaging, Analytics, Presence, Chat/SMS, Cloud Faxing, Business System Integration, and more.
