As we've all seen, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) made its way rather quickly into the public sector, and the challenges of implementing within government agencies has been well documented. In order to help agencies face these challenges, GovLoop recently conducted a survey & released "Exploring Bring Your Own Device in the Public Sector". The report highlights challenges for implementing a BYOD initiative and best practices, and it also provides insights from industry and government experts related to mobility and BYOD.

Included in the report, David Graziano, Director, Security and Unified Access, U.S. Public Sector, Cisco, recently spoke with Pat Fiorenza of GovLoop on the current state of BYOD in government. David stressed that while challenges still remain for BYOD it's one of the most important trends impacting government agencies. He advised that agencies must embrace BYOD and act on it along with their other mobility initiatives.

Not only does BYOD optimize business lines to workforce productivity and morale, but it's becoming a necessity for recruitment, as a new demographic of employees enter the workforce and expect to be mobile and access information on any device, any time anywhere.

Looking to bring BYOD into your agency? Here are five steps outlined to help you get started.

• Step 1 -Meet with key stakeholders to develop pilot plan: At the very onset of developing your BYOD policy, agency leads should sit down with key stakeholders within the agency to discuss what a BYOD initiative looks like. This will also help develop buy-in and create a unified vision for the agency's BYOD program.
• Step 2 - Meet with the legal team: After meeting with stakeholders, be sure to follow up and meet with the legal team to discuss the program and be sure that all legal requirements have been met.  BYOD is very new in government, and there is a lack of legal precedent.
• Step 3 -Craft internal policy for BYOD: After you have met with key stakeholders and the agency's legal team, begin to craft the BYOD policy.
• Step 4 -Announce program to employees: As with any program, announcing and selling the program to employees is critical. If this program is a pilot program, be careful how you select employees and develop a team.
• Step 5 -Iterate, review outcomes, improve BYOD strategy: Once the program has been initiated, be sure to set up periodic check points with end users and administrators so they can provide feedback on the program. This information will be critical for the agency to learn how to improve future BYOD initiatives, with input coming from the core stakeholders.

As the mobile boom continues, and agencies work towards delivering improved services, BYOD initiatives will play a critical role in transforming government operations and service delivery.

Have you faced your own challenges in implementing BYOD? Have other best practices? We would love to hear and share them.