About 95% of the UK population now use a smartphone in their personal life day-to-day.

They’re not just for communication.

We use them to browse the internet. Organise our lives. Shop and make purchases.

These benefits translate into businesses too.

Business mobile phones aren’t just for making calls anymore.

Today you can manage your emails.

Write and edit documents and presentations.

Even sign legal documents on a smartphone.

But with so many people owning their own phone, and many owning the latest version of the newest smartphone, is it really worth the investment to get dedicated smartphones in your business?

Why invest in business phones when you can just use a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy and let employees use their personal phones for work?

There are a few reasons.

Business phones have more predictable costs

If you’ve invested in business mobile phones you’ll have a much better idea what your outgoings will be for those phones.

Having predictable telecommunications costs – or any cost – makes it much easier to plan your wider finances because you won’t have any unexpected surprises down the line.

If you let employees use their own phones for business, you could be expected to contribute towards the costs for when employees are using their phones for work.

But if you’re just providing ad hoc spend or costs for employees, you can’t always predict what these costs will be or if any unexpected costs might crop up.

Most business mobile phone deals can be bought with unlimited calls and a high amount of data, so you’ll very rarely have to worry about employees falling foul of additional costs.

It’s easier to control the usage of business mobile phone

One of the biggest downsides of allowing employees to use their personal phones for work, is you have no control over how they use their phones or what applications they put on the phone.

From a productivity position this is bad because employees can get distracted by apps they have on their personal phones, but with a business phone you can restrict what apps employees can use.

Business phones comes with some tax benefits

Business mobile phones are deemed to be an allowable expense, provided they are registered under a company name.

This means you can claim back many of the expenses associated with investing in a business phone.

The same can’t be said of allowing employees to use their personal phones.

Personal phones can benefit from some tax relief if they’ve been used for business, but only partial expenses can be claimed back, and you’ll have to produce a line by line record of calls made on the phone, and identify which were business calls.

Business phone deals can help you save money

If you’re providing ad hoc costs for individual phones, you could end up paying more because you’re dealing with individual phones.

However when you’re buying business mobile phones, you might be able to benefit from better deals.

You could get a better deal on your individual phone if you’re a sole trader.

If you’re a business with employees, these savings could be even greater because you could save money through buying business phone deals in bulk, which will drive costs down.

Dedicated business mobile phones are safer

Data privacy and security is a huge issue today with more business done online.

Fines from data regulations like GDPR can be huge.

Plus you’ve got the reputational damage to deal with if your business suffers a cyber attack.

Letting employees use their own phones for business is a big risk when it comes to data safety.

For one, security features on smartphones need to be updated regularly to keep up with the latest threats.

But you can’t always be sure employees are updating their phone’s software regularly, and you can’t set policies over how they manage their personal phones.

Plus, not all apps are built with the same level of security and some of the consumer apps that your employees download may not have the high level of security you need to protect your business.

If an employee downloads an app with weak security, it can open your entire network to risks.

And again, you can’t dictate what apps your employees can download on their own phones.

If you invest in dedicated business phones however, you can regulate what apps are allowed to be downloaded and better protect your business’ sensitive data.

You can create uniformity across your technology

Every individual has a preference for what phone or operating system they prefer, whether it’s iOS or Android.

And while these operating systems are much more compatible than they used to be, apps are still created separately and don’t always work perfectly together.

When you’re relying on compatibility between systems to run a successful business, you need to ensure everything is working together as it should.

By investing in business phones you can decide which devices or operating systems will be used in your company, and create a unified technology stack that works as you want it to.

Future proof your business with the latest business smartphones

When it comes to using technology you need to have adaptable systems in place that help you deal with any challenges that come your way.

We only need to look back at the last two years to see how quickly things can change, and having the right devices, systems and security in place are critical to ensuring continuity.

If you’re investing in business phones, you can ensure that every device is updated and upgraded when it needs to be, and that employees have access to the right technology and tools they need.

Get better support with a business phones provider

Investing in dedicated business mobile phones isn’t just about ensuring employees have the right devices with the right applications.

It’s about making sure that if something goes wrong, you have the support available to get your phones back up and running as quickly as possible.

When you invest in business phones you have that level of support available to resolve any problems quickly.

Whether it’s tech support to fix any malfunctions, or device support to get replacements sent out should an employee lose or break their phone.

For security purposes, you can also use device management to ensure any stolen or lost devices can be remotely wiped of any sensitive information before it gets into the wrong hands.

If employees are using their personal devices, you can’t be sure they’ll be able to replace a lost or damaged phone quickly – which could result in you paying the bill.

Or that repairs will happen quickly, or if replacement devices will be available.

That’s a big risk to take when so much of your business is reliant on employees having access to their phones and mobile devices.

Ready to get the most out of your business mobile phones?

If you’re looking for a new business mobile phone then you can browse our latest handset and sim only deals, including the new iPhone 13.

We’ve got all the latest Android and iOS devices available with a range of business phone deals that will provide the right level of minutes, texts and data you need for your business.

If you’ve already got business mobile phones but think you should be getting a better deal, try our cost saving calculator and see how much you could save by switching to Communications Plus for your business mobile phones.