24 No matter where you work or what industry you are in, you have probably noticed your colleagues use a dizzying array of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, PDAs and more. And you probably use one or more of these devices yourself. This trend—employees bringing personal devices into the workplace and using them for business—has been dubbed “the consumerization of IT.” With more than 302 million smartphones shipped worldwide in 2010, according to ABI Research, and a healthy 19 percent annual growth rate predicted through 2016, consumerization should continue to grow. No doubt it will be fueled by the continuing introduction of new tablets, smartphones and mobile apps sporting irresistible functionality and price points. A key question, however, is whether companies should encourage this blurring of the divide between business and personal use or clamp down on the influx of consumer technology and support only officially approved devices. Another issue is how such devices are sourced: Should employers ignore the influx, encourage staffers to choose their own devices by subsidizing the purchase, or buy standardized technology for corporate use only? Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em? To answer these questions, consider the productivity gains possible from an on-demand work force whose pervasive connections to carriers and Wi-Fi networks enable mobile users to access communications and information on- demand. Research indicates that on-demand workers spend as much as one hour per day longer performing business-related tasks than workers without mobile access. Mobilized staffers often respond to email and perform other business tasks after hours, in effect extending their workday. And corporate information available on-demand via mobile applications can save users considerable time and effort. “The on-demand aspect of mobility means that as you need access to information within your company, it’s right there via your smartphone or tablet,” says Tiffany Benson, SMB mobility marketing senior consultant at Dell. “The mobile device is a central point for all your information and activities. And being able to go behind the firewall and securely access a SharePoint document, for instance, instead of having to drive back to the office, log in and open SharePoint, can greatly increase productivity.” Research from AMI-Partners shows that such productivity gains equate to better business results. According to a recent study, SMBs that embrace mobility had 40 percent higher revenue growth over the past year than those that don’t. “We expect the mobile work force trend to continue,” says Michael McDonald, senior associate of worldwide SMB sizing at AMI-Partners. “SMBs who don’t embrace mobile technologies are at risk of falling behind.” By Tom Farre BYOD: The Decisions You Can’t Avoid. Balancing freedom of device choice and the security divide– “Bring Your Own Device” programs drive productivity but introduce unique security concerns between business and personal data. Learn more: 1-800-847-4043 dell.com/business/solutions The BYOD model of computing “is happening whether companies intend it to or not” –John Herrema, Senior VP, Good Technology
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no matter where you work or what industry you are in, you have probably noticed your colleagues use a dizzying array of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, PDAs and more. And you probably use one or more of these devices yourself.
This trend—employees bringing personal devices into the workplace and using them for business—has been dubbed “the consumerization of IT.” With more than 302 million smartphones shipped worldwide in 2010, according to ABI Research, and a healthy 19 percent annual growth rate predicted through 2016, consumerization should continue to grow. No doubt it will be fueled by the continuing introduction of new tablets, smartphones and mobile apps sporting irresistible functionality and price points.
A key question, however, is whether companies should encourage this blurring of the divide between
business and personal use or clamp down on the influx of consumer technology and support only officially approved devices. Another issue is how such devices are sourced: Should employers ignore the influx, encourage staffers to choose their own devices by subsidizing the purchase, or buy standardized technology for corporate use only?
Love ‘em or Leave ‘em?To answer these questions, consider the productivity gains possible from an on-demand work force whose pervasive connections to carriers and Wi-Fi networks enable mobile users to access communications and information on- demand. Research indicates that on-demand workers spend as much as one hour per day longer performing business-related tasks than workers without mobile access.
Mobilized staffers often respond to email and perform other business tasks after hours, in effect extending their workday. And corporate information available on-demand via mobile applications can save users considerable time and effort. “The on-demand aspect of mobility means that as you need access to information within your company, it’s right there via your smartphone or tablet,” says Tiffany Benson, SMB mobility marketing senior consultant at Dell. “The mobile device is a central point
for all your information and activities. And being able to go behind the firewall and securely access a SharePoint document, for instance, instead of having to drive back to the office, log in and open SharePoint, can greatly increase productivity.”
Research from AMI-Partners shows that such productivity gains equate to better business results. According to a recent study, SMBs that embrace mobility had 40 percent higher revenue growth over the past year than those that don’t. “We expect the mobile work force trend to continue,” says Michael McDonald, senior associate of worldwide SMB sizing at AMI-Partners. “SMBs who don’t embrace mobile technologies are at risk of falling behind.”
By Tom Farre
BYOD:The DecisionsYou Can’t avoid.
Balancing freedom of device choice and the security divide– “ Bring Your Own Device” programs drive productivity but introduce unique security concerns between business and personal data.
Perhaps that explains why, from a business perspective, companies are moving toward accepting and encouraging the consumerization of IT. The benefits of employees bringing their own mobile technology into the workplace are too great to ignore, regardless of the IT challenges it can lead to. A Tweet from the recent Computerworld Premiere 100 conference put it succinctly: “CIOs who don’t support employee-owned devices, smartphones, iPads, etc., may be minority i.e. dinosaurs.”
This is the bring-your- own-device (BYOD) model of mobile computing, which “is happening whether companies intend it to or not,” says John Herrema, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Good™ Technology, a provider of mobility management software and services. “BYOD can happen in one of two ways. You can just let it happen, or you can be proactive about it, decide what your objective is, and then plan and execute on the plan.”
embracing the Inevitable With Common SenseWhen setting an objective for a BYOD plan, it’s important to map out the company’s goals for mobility, existing devices and carrier relation-ships, planned usage of mobile devices, and any constraints relating to in-house expertise or IT budgets. Decisions must be made about which devices and operating systems to support; how mobile
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users access corporate information; how devices, networks and information are secured; and what management tools are available. The point is to ascertain which combination of mobile devices, carrier plans, applications and policies deliver the
highest business return and the lowest ownership costs.
For example, a company could encourage mobile device use (and the hoped-for productivity gains) through a BYOD program that pays employees a stipend for any device they buy to use at work—the higher the stipend, the more likely they are to go mobile. Creating a restrictive list of approved devices might defeat the program’s purpose, however, since personal choice is a key aspect of BYOD. Yet leaving the choice entirely in users’ hands leaves IT with the headache of securing and managing an increasingly diverse fleet.
“Different devices have different levels of security and connectivity,” says Benson. “So the challenge for IT administrators is managing the security requirements across those different devices based on their capabilities. You can see how that would get really complicated really quickly if you’re trying to manage them individually.” There’s also the issue of devices being used for business and personal use—how can IT manage
the corporate side of data and applications without violating users’ privacy or restricting their creativity?
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Tom Farre is a freelance journalist who has been covering the computer industry for
more than 20 years.
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One possibility entails narrowing the choice of devices by operating system. This is helpful to IT support, since diff erent devices and form
factors running open, standards-based software, such as Android™ or Windows® Mobile, are more likely to off er the benefi ts of mobility without limiting the choices available to end users. “The software platform is the key driver going forward,” says Bill Leasure, director of carrier relations for SMB at Dell. “Once you get some experience with open-based platforms, it’s pretty easy to deploy smartphones and tablets that will scale with the needs of the organization.”
Security Remains Job OneThis still leaves the issue of securing and managing a fl eet of varied devices for corporate and personal use. The mobility team at Dell is working on centralized software solutions that separate the corporate from the personal side. “With these solutions,” she says, “instead of IT having to maintain every aspect of the device, IT can maintain
the integrity of their corporate information and applications without having to worry about the personal usage of the device.” And while you might standardize on Android, Windows Mobile or BlackBerry devices,
what happens when an employee brings in an iPad or other unsupported device? Because they
understand how common this is, the mobility team at Dell is working on solutions that are
device, carrier and operating-system agnostic. One entails a partnership
with Good™ Technology, whose Good For Enterprise software
provides policy-based containerization, security and
management of corporate information and applications on devices running
operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows® Mobile and Symbian.This is just one approach a company can
take to achieve the dual objectives of encouraging employee choice while giving IT the tools to manage the environment. Increasingly, it’s the kind of challenge that mobilized SMBs will have to address.
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