Device policies and choice: Why financial firms should move toward CYOD

For financial services firms, ensuring compliance and security is paramount. Technology decisions play a key role in keeping firms safe. This includes technology choices such as the decision to go with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) policy for mobile devices.

Learn the pros and cons of both BYOD and CYOD approaches, why financial firms should move toward CYOD and how to implement the policy in your firm.

CYOD vs. BYOD: Pros and cons

Mobile devices have become critical to keeping employees productive. With a BYOD policy, an employee purchases and controls a phone or other mobile device of their choosing. This means the employee is responsible for making necessary security updates to the device and has the ability to access potentially vulnerable personal applications.

With a CYOD policy, an employee chooses a device from a short list of options provided by the company and shares responsibility with their employer. They can run personal applications but often only through a separate profile or container.

Companies that rely on BYOD as the centerpiece of their mobile strategies are missing out on the opportunity to increase productivity and address privacy concerns with secure containers. The latter can appeal to workers who prefer to have separate spaces on their phones for work and personal use.

The value of establishing a CYOD program

A firm’s management may believe letting employees carry their own devices will result in cost savings. However, for most organizations, adopting BYOD policies results in only modest savings in the total cost of mobile enablement for employees.

Yet, when it comes down to deciding which mobile policy to implement, the biggest influence continues to be the balance of cost versus value. While cost is a clear driver behind most organizations opting for a BYOD program, it’s also dependent on the value that mobile devices can provide to the overall business. Organizations choosing their own devices are looking for a mobile approach that provides benefits such as improved productivity, easier management and improved security.

Samsung’s CYOD solution can help make your workforce more productive and collaborative with the tools employees need. That means:

• Giving employees their choice of device to improve satisfaction on the job
• Improving collaboration by optimizing apps to meet employees’ needs and support new ways of working

For example, Samsung Galaxy S24 Series comes with business apps optimized for mobile phones and multiple ways for team members to communicate their workflow — all with Knox Security defense-grade protection built in.

Compliance and security

Opting for a BYOD program puts more responsibility on employees — including for critical compliance and security measures. Will workers regularly install the appropriate security patches? Will they protect their devices with passwords or biometric authentication?

In a BYOD environment, businesses depend on employees to make the right choices for the company’s security, which can lead to compliance headaches. Regulators are cracking down on employee use of personal devices for work-related communications.

Phones issued in a CYOD program let financial services firms ensure configurations, security and repair procedures are standardized. With an enterprise mobility management (EMM) or mobile device management (MDM) system, firms can monitor devices remotely and push regular updates through to ensure apps and security patches are up to date.

Leveraging Galaxy AI for data security

The power of Galaxy AI¹ can deliver business-friendly AI with data sovereignty to your business and CYOD program, both on-device and in the cloud, with different security systems for each depending on the AI tool being used. For peace of mind,you can control cloud-based AI features to mitigate security risks. Out of the box, your AI device is secure. However, with Knox Platform for Enterprise, IT admins can choose to use on-device-only Galaxy AI features, disabling cloud-based features for sensitive AI tasks. This way, you can empower users while protecting work data against leaks or misuse.

Device management

As employee property, a BYOD phone carries different rules and expectations. Though the firm can ask employees to install an MDM client on their phone, employees may resist company monitoring or limitations when using a personal device.

Other cons of BYOD include increased complications in deploying business apps — due to multiple operating systems and device models — and reduced business agility and customer service availability.

With corporate-liable devices, companies gain greater control over data, apps and how employees use the devices. With these corporate controls implemented, companies can ensure security protocols are up to date.

For a full overview of all Samsung technology solutions for the Finance industry, please visit this page. And sign up for a Samsung Business Account to get exclusive offers, including volume pricing discounts, on our newest devices like Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5.

¹Galaxy AI features by Samsung will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.