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T E C H N O L O G Y BYOD ? Bring Your Ow n Device Reducing Business IT Cost s If you keep an eye on technology news or future IT business trends, then you may have heard the term ?BYOD? (Bring Your Own Device). There is a lot of discussion about BYOD because it has the great potential to drastically reduce business IT hardware costs, simplifying IT management while helping the environment. In 2016, 82% of adults (41.8 million) in Great Britain used the internet every day or almost every day. This was an increase from 78% in 2015 and more than double the reported estimate of 35% in 2006[1]. Have you ever counted how many computer devices there are in your possession? I consider myself to have typical IT needs for my job and home life: including old unused devices we have 5 laptops, 3 tablets and 5 smartphones in our household. That?s 13 potential ways to access the Internet, which is essential for most peoples?work these days. It would be much better to reduce these devices to an adequate number, saving costs and CO2 through reduced manufacturing. It has been standard practice for many years for an employer to issue their employees with company laptops for their work. They also need to insure them, secure them from viruses, and manage and maintain them either through an in-house team or external IT support companies. In addition they need to replace them when they get lost or stolen, or simply become outdated, not to mention the cost of lost business data. Typically businesses refresh their IT hardware every 3 to 4 years due to them falling behind in the required specification to run the latest applications. This has a direct cost implication, and also ties in with the UK accountancy rules that all IT equipment depreciates to a value of zero after 3 years. With BYOD, the employee would use their own computer to work on: this would be an amazing disrupter to every business as it would remove a lot of the cost and headache of managing IT hardware. It would allow the business to regain focus on its main functions. So why hasn?t it taken off yet? Well, it causes a few challenges, namely security and integration with current company IT infrastructure - e.g. how does a business ensure it?s protected from viruses brought in by external equipment, or how do they enable access to and protection of sensitive company files and email? There are fairly simple solutions to these on the first point as we have all connected our devices to a guest WiFi somewhere and anti-virus software can be implemented as well. Deskt op as a Service (DaaS) is a solution on a larger scale. This is where the employee uses any standard web browser (on their own device) to log in to their ?work laptop.?Their work desktop and all of the company data that they need is stored in the Cloud, fully secured and can?t be impacted by the local device. File transfer to and from the local device can be managed per user, so if the laptop is stolen, no company data is lost as it never leaves the Cloud. What?s more, you can use any computer anywhere in the world to login to your work desktop. The global BYOD and Enterprise Mobility market is expected to over double from $35bn in 2016 to $73bn in 2021[2]: this marries well with the fact that workstation desktop sales have been falling by an average of 9.8% year on year since their peak in 2011[3]. There are more people working on laptops and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. The increasing demand of w orking rem ot ely is also playing a key role in the development of BYOD practices. In 2014 the UK government released a set of guidelines for the implementation of BYOD which are a good starting point but don?t consider all of the technical solutions to BYOD such as DaaS. For example, it states that, ?the legal responsibility for protecting personal information is with the data controller, not the device owner. The Information Commissioner?s Office (ICO) can impose fines of up to £500,000 for serious data breaches.?Therefore the business is still responsible for controlling sensitive and personal data, further ratified in the updated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016 through the EU which is now law and has stronger rules and implications on how data is source, managed and protected. If you would like to know more about the contents of this article or about Cloud services, please contact us at contact@miranex.com. Edward Green, Managing Director. Miranex Limited. [1] Reference Office of National Statistics [2] Reference Marketsandmarkets via Computerdealernews [3] Reference IDC 25.
T E C H N O L O G Y Revealing t he hidden pow er of business SMS You?d be hard pushed to find someone in the UK who doesn?t use SMS. After all, the number of active phone subscriptions is currently higher than the national population and messaging is the most common mobile activity. It?s not just about communicating with friends - SMS also presents a massive opportunity for businesses. It offers the chance to build relationships through instant communication. Whether it?s a restaurant boosting loyalty with special offers, a courier providing tracking information or a dentist delivering appointment reminders; the range of uses is vast. In a world where people are distracted by daily deluges of information, it?s often difficult to reach and engage a target audience, but SMS ? more than any other channel - makes it possible. The biggest of audiences At present, there are around 30 million people in the UK who use Facebook ? that?s approximately 60 per cent of the population. Its closest competitors, Twitter and Instagram, each have a user-base around half that size, according to the latest official figures. The most recent Ofcom data also shows that only two-thirds of adults own smartphones. That leaves more than 30 per cent unreachable through web-dependent OTT messaging services. Amid all of this, the ownership of SMS-capable mobile phones stands at 93 per cent. And when you consider that the majority of users keep their devices with them throughout the day, it?s clear that texting cannot be matched for reach. A messaging addiction The list of things you can do with a mobile phone is growing, but messaging still takes up the biggest chunk of the average owner?s five hours of daily usage. It comes ahead of web browsing, email, photography and ? perhaps most note-worthy for businesses ? social media. It?s not difficult to understand why this is. Mobile phones were introduced because people need to communicate, and SMS is by far the most convenient platform. No wonder we?re sending 23 billion texts a day. The cherry on top for businesses So how about engagement? This is the main issue faced by those using email: small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) send millions of emails every day, but the average open rate across all industries is less than 23 per cent. That?s more than three-quarters of all business emails going straight to the digital bin. SMS, however, is proven to be extremely effective at getting through. More than 99 per cent of all texts are opened, and nine in ten are read within three minutes. You couldn?t ask for much more. A tried-and-tested business tool The businesses that do embrace SMS almost always get results. The vast majority of those that use it as a marketing tool, for example, find it effective, and most are ready to increase spending on it in the near future. These users appreciate the often-overlooked adaptability of this humble technology ? one that allows businesses to send links, attach files and easily monitor responses. The evidence in support of using SMS in business is overwhelming, so its continuing growth is in no way surprising. Jason Palgrave-Jones, Managing Director at Textlocal, explains: ?Companies of all sizes are beginning to understand the power of text messaging as an instant and highly effective communication platform. ?The technology has battled setbacks and misconception due to its misuse, but as an opt-in-only industry, the value of communicating with an audience of people who have chosen to hear offers and alerts from a business cannot be underestimated.? www.textlocal.com www.profloeng.com LEADING FABRICATION ENGINEERS Proflo Engineering Ltd has rapidly established itself as one of the leading hygienic fabrication contractors within the food industry. We are an independent, family run engineering company which has grown our reputation for quality and customer satisfaction. Being a family run business means every customer and every contract is personal and very important to us. Services Include: Hygienic Pipework Fabrication - Stainless Steel & Mild Steel Fabrications Gas Safe Registered Specialists Design - 2D & 3D AutoCAD Inventor 0151 548 3247 enquiries@profloeng.com Company Reg: 4633761 Unit 2, Gillmoss Ind Estate, Liverpool, L11 0EE 26.
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