If you're a typical small-business owner, you don't have a centralized provisioning system that can easily and automatically deploy each desktop or laptop system. You might not even have a dedicated employee, let alone a whole department, to manage your IT
resources. And you probably give each user their own local login, instead of using a centralized authentication server. In other words, your employees have the keys to their local computer kingdoms. And that means they can do just about anything on their machines: Install new applications, install undesirable applications, change settings, and perhaps even unintentionally corrupt the Registry or download malware.
Giving your employees the freedom to try
new tools, listen to music while they work, or visit social media sites in their off time will improve their morale and enhance their productivity. But that flexibility can quickly lead to disaster if they wind up ruining their computers, bogging them down with garbage apps, or worse.
So how do you balance keeping your
employees happy with maintaining control of your company's assets?