Bring or buy; An introduction to BYOD

To put first things first, i'll start off briefly explaining the basics of the bring your own device concept. This trend made it's way into the world in many forms and variations, but i'll attempt to explain the two basic types.

As of today, there are two types of BYOD, each having their own variations;

• Bring your own device;
• Buy your own device.

It's only a one-word difference, but as you'll find out more and more, a difference not to be overlooked. The first of two variations (Bring), means employees now literally bring their own personally purchased devices (e.a. notebooks, smartphones, tablets) into the office and use them for work purposes. In most cases, IT management will provide employees and their own devices basic support. The bring your own device concept is most commonly used in companies hiring lots of jobbers, interns and other external staff. Both the business and their employees benefit from this scenario. The company doesn't have to purchase expensive hardware and software-licenses, and the employees will be happier using their own equipment and tools, that they're already familiar with in the first place.

In the latter of variations, the "B" stands for "Buy", which comes down to the following: Every employee that's willing to participate in the BYOD program, receives a set budget that they can spend to buy the hardware they prefer to use for work purposes. With this sum of money he could, for example, buy an expensive smartphone and a relatively cheap notebook, or vice versa. This way, companies facilitating the "Buy" variation of byod, empower their users to make their own choices in the devices they use, leading to a happier and more productive workforce (more on this in an upcoming blogpost). As of lately, businesses using the "Buy"variation, split up their budget, giving employees a separate fee for notebooks as well as (smart)phones.

In the end, you'll find out almost every company has it's different views, perceptions, and definitions on what "byod" exactly is and how it should be implemented and used. This, however, are the basic forms of "byod". In future blog posts, I'll talk about more variations on the two, and about how various early adopters implemented them.