The Difference Between COPE and BYOD

With mobile devices being such a large part of doing business, it’s imperative that your business has a plan to manage them. Many times this comes with a lot of hand-wringing. One of the biggest issues is whether or not the business invests in their employee mobility or if they simply demand that they gain use of employee-owned devices. In today’s blog we’ll go through the mobile management strategies of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE).

Mobile Device Management

Mobile Device Management (MDM) is not only the process of managing a mobile device’s interactions with your technology, it is also the name of the software used to do so. Most of your employees have a smartphone, and if you deploy devices to some or all of your staff, you would use this software to manage how these devices interact with your network. Let’s go through both options.

Bring Your Own Device

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is the strategy of using employee-owned devices for work purposes. This approach offers a lot of convenience, giving companies the flexibility to allow employees to access company resources from their own devices. BYOD can help to increase productivity and really helps you score brownie points with your employees. Companies implementing BYOD should put in place data security measures to protect sensitive data; especially with remote employees making up a good chunk of the workforce (~12.2% full remote; ~28% part-time).

Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled

In direct contrast to BYOD, COPE smartphone management is a strategy that allows organizations to effectively manage and protect their corporate mobile devices. With COPE, they purchase and deploy the smartphone, ensuring they have control over the way the device is used. This includes compliance with security policies, managing device configurations, and enforcing access and authentication, both key for security. Overall, COPE smartphone management offers total control, but like purchasing hardware vs. using the cloud, you’re on the hook for hardware, software, and security costs.

Regardless of what system you plan on using, the IT professionals at Macro Systems can help you deploy your mobile management platform and enable you to utilize mobile devices for employee productivity and security. For more information, call us today at 703-359-9211.