Banks begin to tackle BYOD

No industry appears to be beyond the reach of consumerization and enterprise mobility's bring-your-own-device trend, as a recent report from Information Management highlighted the fact that many banks are now allowing employees to bring smartphones and tablets from home.

This is a significant endorsement for BYOD, as banks fall squarely within the financial services industry, which is among the most highly regulated in the world. When it comes to data that may be accessed and leveraged on personally owned devices, banks will have to ensure that all compliance requirements are met.

But that doesn't appear to be stopping many organizations. Information Management told the story of 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union in Newport News, Virginia, which, according its vice president of marketing Jim Craig, supports all mobile platforms.

However, 1st Advantage did start small, allowing only executives to utilize personally owned technology. Such devices have only been granted limited access and are prohibited from storing enterprise information. Craig did acknowledge that projects are under way to expand 1st Advantage's BYOD program.

"It's an option that an increasing number of bankers consider to be more interactive with consumers than the traditional method in which customer service representatives share sales brochures and documents with consumers; or turn around to enter information into a computer that's behind the rep on his or her desk," the report noted, of the greater use of tablets in bank branches.

But the process of allowing personally owned devices to access the enterprise network is one that includes many steps, each of which is important. It starts with a mobile device management solution, one expert told Information Management.

A bank must ensure that it's fully prepared for an onslaught of consumer technology, and an MDM solution allows that to happen, said Jacob Jegher, a senior analyst at research firm Celent.

"The first thing [bank IT departments] need to consider is, do they have the infrastructure to handle this," he said, according to Information Management. "They will need software that will be able to manage multiple devices; it is not just a standard BlackBerry anymore."

BYOD is something that organizations should tackle head-on, according to experts, as the trend is taking hold across numerous industries. Being proactive is the best option to ensure that consumer technology is used effectively and properly among employees.