Impact of Byod (Bring Your Own Device)

Enterprise Mobility (EM) is the technology that enables organizations to allow its employees to access the Enterprise data (such as company reports and presentations) and enterprise applications (such as CRM, SFA, emails, calendar, project management etc. via mobile phones or tablets from anywhere at any time. Giving them more flexibility at work, it allows employees to download company real time data, access and updates enterprise applications, participates in virtual meetings and teleconferences from anywhere, any time. End result of which is increased productivity of work force for the company and better service output for the customer. Rational for EM adoption and benefits?

The growing number of mobile user base, availability of sophisticated smart phones, improved telecommunication infrastructure and fast adoption of mobile technology by employees/consumers [35% of the employees globally are estimated to be mobile by 2013 (Satagopan and Mathai 2011)] all these factors together are setting up a stage for growth in EM adaption in near future [“EM market is expected to grow from $67. 21 billion in 2011 to$181. 9 Billion by 2017 with a CAGR of 15. 17%” (MarketsandMarkets 2012)]. The CoIT (consumerzation on IT) has opened the door to the possibility of using the consumer mobile technology for enterprise purpose and the benefits of EM to an organization are tremendous. The most important benefits of effective EM strategy to any organization are; * Fast information flow: The EM can facilitate supersonic flow of the information within the organization.

It can open various communication channels that can facilitate fast flow of information between the employs and between various departments of the company empowering the decision making process within the organization. Ability to share a real time data/ information with employees and fast decision making process can mean more efficient service output and opportunity to provide best customer care in the industry. Flexibility and comfort: The successful implementation of EM strategy will also provide work flexibility and comfort to the employees; resulting in the better work culture that companies can further promote to acquire and retain the best talent in the industry. In nut shell the EM strategy is win-win situation for both the employees and the organization. The successful EM strategy implementation holds a key for an organization to achieve the competitive advantage over its competitors and to become proactive to the environmental change.

Barrier to the successful EM adoption: The cost associated with the corporate use licenses, purchase and maintenance of mobile devices is the biggest barriers for successful EM adoption. Depending up on the size and the number of employees of the company the cost of purchase and maintenance of the mobile devices could vary form an organization to organization, however it still could be a significant amount for a management of any organization to not to decide to walk on EM path.

Could BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) be the solution to overcome the Barrier to EM adoption? What is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)? Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is trend where people who love there I phone, I pad or other smart devices wants to bring them to work for various reasons And the enterprises allow (with Caveat) the use of such personal devices at work.

The reasons why people want to bring/use their devices at work may include (but not limited to): * Comfort: Rather than learning to operate new device (provided by employer) employees feel it’s easier and comfortable for them to use their own devices at work [53% of the employees use their mobile devices for work (Gillett F and et al. 2012)]. * Changing work pattern and work schedule: work places are becoming more and more competitive.

Cut throat competition at work means no excusive (even if they are genuine) and working out of hours, on weekends and from home which would require use of both company and personal devices such as home pc. * Social media sharing and Constant desire to be connected with friends: no one has survived the social media wave and almost every one (just a figurative statement) today has profile on some social media site and want constantly to be in touch with friends and relatives [68% employees and 71% prospective employees want to access social media at work (CISCO 2011)]. Multitasking: The trend of multitasking has picked up in a recent few years. To make the work environment more attractive and friendly the work restrictions are becoming weak and activities such as listening to music, messenger chat, online gaming are the common activities that employees want to do alongside their duties. * Brand loyalty: more and more consumers are becoming brand loyal and would not typically like to work on a device manufactured by other company [apple received 2 million orders in the first 24 hours of the new phone launch. Times of India 2012)]. Allowing employees to bring and use their personal devices at work provides number of benefits to the company (some are discussed below). However along with the benefits BYOD often brings enterprise data security concerns. This skepticism about data security and some of the other fall back of the BYOD concept (discussed below in the report) are the reasons why despite the tremendous benefits BYOD can bring to the organization the company managements are very cautious about the BYOD model and not fully convinced to adopt/accept it.

Incentive for an organization for adopting BYOD policy: In addition to the benefits of EM strategy that we have discussed earlier in this article, the most important incentive/benefit the BYOD model can provide to a company is the significant cost saving. As the devices used by the employees are owned by themselves the cost of purchase, insurance, maintenance, upgrade and ongoing support are paid by employees. That can save the huge cost which otherwise the company would have to bear.

The other significant benefit to the company is the IT work force can focus more on supporting the IT requirements of the organization rather than purchasing and implementing the devices (Information service group 2012). Down falls of BYOD The most important downfall of the BYOD model is data security concern. In the event of the device loss the enterprise sensitive data can get exposed if the device falls in to wrong hand. Though the companies can wipe any such data from the device using remote wipe or lock down the device still such incidence (which are very common to occur) can expose the organization to the significant amount of risk.

The other down fall of the model is as the employer has no choice on the make or the company/brand of device that an employee can bring to work. The IT department will have to support the devices simultaneously which are running of various platforms such as iOS and Android and that could be daunting task for IT personnel. The most important argument that advocates the use of BYOD model is that it can save huge cost of buying and maintaining the device however the stipend or reimbursement towards the service plan used by the employees can increase the company cost in many folds than the coast of acquiring and maintaining the devices.

Conclusion: In nut shell, the EM and BYOD concept are evolving concepts. Though the environmental factors and market trends suggest that the EM and BYOD will shape the future of the businesses and will change the way business operate today. It would not be wrong to predict that these concepts will take their fair share of time to evolve as mature concepts before business can accept them with eyes shut.

References:

1.  CISCO 2011, The Cisco Connected World Technology Report, Cisco Company.
2. CISCO 2011, The New Work Place Currency Report, Cisco Company.
3. Gillett, F, Mines,C Warner,J, Bartels,A, Schadler,T Yates,S, Sehgal,V, Huynh,S, Yamnitsky, M 2012 Forrester reserch 2012, NFO WORKERS WILL ERASE THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN ENTERPRISE AND CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES – A BT Futures Report,Forrester reserch.
4.  Information service group 2012 Bring Your Own Device [PowerPoint slides]. Reterived fromhttp://www. slideshare. net/slideshow/embed_code/14265374? rel=0
5. MarketsandMarkets 2012, Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), Consumerimization of IT (Co-IT) and Enterprise Mobility Market – Global Advancements, Business Models, Market Forecasts & Analysis (2012 – 2017), MarketsandMarkets Company Pune.
6.  Satagopan, M and Mathai,P 2011, Ringing in change, Facts of mobile technology adoption in manufacturing, Wipro Councile for research.
7. Times of India 2012, iPhone 5: Apple pushes delivery time to October Sep. 12 2012 Times of India

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