Shortly after Steve Jobs' passing in October, many of his mourners expressed a similar sentiment: not only do people love Apple products, they see the products as extensions of themselves.

What makes the bring your own device (BYOD) trend so powerful is the permission granted to use one's personally-owned device—the one they are "fused with—to get the job done. Unsuprisingly, this makes them better workers, according to Grant McTaggart, and executive at Best Buy Canada.

Bring Your Own Device a Big Success for Best Buy

McTaggart described Best Buy Canada's successful BYOD program in a recent piece for the Vancouver Sun. The program gave workers three options. They could choose a basic smartphone at no cost, pay a small fee for a mid-level device, or a larger fee for an advanced mobile device. Once purchased, employees were permitted to use it at work or bring it home for personal use.

Since launching the program, the company has seen a less than 1 percent breakage of mobile devices. This is down from more than 10 percent prior to the program,

Mobile Device Security a Top Concern

Security was a concern for Best Buy in the early days of its BYOD program, McTaggart wrote. Since implementing a cloud-based mobile device management (MDM) solution, workers have earned the ability to tap in to resources anytime, anywhere, and access programs or data in a secure fashion.

McTaggart admitted the MDM solution they chose will not work for every company. However, cloud-based MDM solutions are flexible; a company typically selects the MDM solution with feature sets that line up best with its business model.

Security features can differ depending on the solution. For example, by leveraging MaaS360's mobile application management (MAM) feature, IT directors have the unique option to host and distribute mobile apps via the AppCloud. Once accessed, users are prompted to provide sufficient authentication prior to download for increased security.

Don't be deterred by issues around security [...] The solutions and security measures are our there to make this type of program work and benefit both your company and your employees.

- Grant McTaggart, VP Administration & Corporate HR, Best Buy Canada

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