BYOD (bring your own device) is fast becoming a policy favored by many businesses for its money saving benefits. But these benefits may be outweighed by the cost risks, particularly when organizations don’t take a pure-play approach to BYOD. In most cases, employers still provide at least a portion of employees with company-owned devices, in additional to allowing and supporting personal devices. These situations increase the chances of several major cost risks related to carrier contracts.
It is possible to take advantage of all the cost benefits of BYOD, even if your business takes a hybrid approach to employee devices. You just need to have a good understanding of your carrier agreement and how BYOD cost savings might be negatively impacted by this approach. Consider the following to help avoid these cost risks:
1. Don’t give up your volume discounts
Individual responsible users (IRUs) will count towards your total number of users on your current carrier contract and qualify you for any volume discounts. You will need to set up a corporate referral code for IRU’s to use when they sign up their personal devices. This will add them to your corporate rate plan and, if enough IRUs sign up, give you more discounts than you currently have.
2. The effects of termination fees can be minimized
As with any change, switching mass amounts of corporate responsible users (CRUs) to IRUs is a difficult task that involves cost risks. To make it even harder, most carriers will hit you with early termination fees they use to keep clients from changing carriers or canceling service. Be aware of the fees and know how they will impact your cost savings so you can off-set them in other ways.
3. Be prepared for security costs
Unfortunately, individually owned devices require more security measures and governance to keep company information safe and monitor usage effectively. The costs associated with implementing these measures are often high, but also necessary. Be prepared to manage the additional costs by having a plan in place before you begin BYOD implementation.
Joseph B. Kappernick specializes in helping Fortune 500 companies save money. He recommends that you visit NPI Financial to learn more about telecom cost management service