In today’s always-connected world, the time-honored separation of work and personal time is quickly disappearing. Mobile devices such as laptops, netbooks, tablets, and smartphones have fundamentally changed how all of us live and work. With work no longer confined to a physical office space, or limited to traditional business hours, we’ve created an increasingly mobile and dispersed workforce capable of working anywhere at anytime. 3 out of 5 workers today no longer believe an office presence is necessary for a productive day’s work.

Transferring IT hardware and equipment expenses to employees can save SMBs significant money. A study conducted by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions projected that U.S. companies utilizing BYOD can save up to $3,150 per employee each year.

With some SMBs it’s no longer a question of what devices employees use and when they use them. Rather, businesses are looking at how to leverage the latest technologies so that employees can be more productive and efficient, even when they aren’t in the office. With this change in attitude comes new challenges: Both business and IT leaders will face new questions about security, productivity, infrastructure, and staff training.

According to Gartner analysts, more than half of organizations today already allow their employees to use third-party devices for work. While 80% of companies surveyed by Dell trust their employees in terms of device security, just 2% trust them completely.

A Managed IT Service Provider can provide a Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution. The MDM solutions are a cost-effective means to ensure that any mobile device accessing their network is identified, controlled, and monitored.

This method of centralized management makes it easy to configure devices for enterprise access, stipulates password policy and encryption settings, locates and remotely clears and locks any lost or stolen device, automates security updates, and proactively identifies and resolves device or app issues.