5 minute read
Smart Strategies for BYOD
from SOLVE Q3 2014
by ⌘ ⇧ ⌥
Allowing employees to use their own devices is a win-win.
BY JOSEPH BRADLEY
THE TO-DO LIST
Apple afi cionados. Windows fanatics. Android advocates. They may argue about whose laptops or smart devices are the best, but on one point there is strong agreement: they prefer not to part with their gadgets of choice—ever. That is especially true at work, where many believe the familiarity, simplicity, and mobility of their own devices can bestow deep benefi ts, including the ability to stay up to speed on work matters even when they are far from the offi ce.
To prove it, workers even started a movement: Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD. And while BYOD has been largely employeedriven, it offers solid advantages from an enterprise or business perspective.
Indeed, Cisco Consulting Service s surveys show that BYOD adoption is expected to increase 105 percent between 2013 and 2016 in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China and Brazil. The main survey of 2,400 mobile users across 18 industries and six countries, along with 135 IT decision makers, showed that BYOD benefi ts employees and companies. That is, if it is executed with the right degree of planning and support.
Employees don’t just want BYOD; they pay for it. Mobile employees spend an average of $965 on their devices, and use an average of 1.7 personal devices for work. They are also willing to use the personal voice and data plans that they are already paying for out their own pockets.
In general, companies react to their employees' device demands with fragmentary capabilities and policies. We recommend a strategic response—creating a comprehensive implementation policy—that will enable them to reap the full benefi ts of BYOD.
Embrace Comprehensive BYOD
Only 26 percent of companies surveyed have implemented anything that comes close to Comprehensive BYOD. These capabilities include: the ability to monitor and remotely “wipe” corporate data; automatic application and enforcement of corporate access and use policies; the ability to move among networks or multiple devices seamlessly and securely; corporate collaboration tools that work on all end-user device types and brands; and simple and user-friendly authentication for all devices.
Free the Workers, Lock Up the Data
Employees will innovate and collaborate best when they are given the freedom to work their way. Yet some fear that security risks and the complexity of managing devices on multiple platforms could outweigh the benefi ts. Indeed, in this model of decentralized control, information security becomes crucial. Thus, an effective BYOD policy does not just mean employee choice; it must ensure that through virtualization, cloud applications, and other technologies, the company controls where and how its data is stored and accessed even if that data is spread across multiple devices, clouds, and networks. The most secure way for an organization to lock up data and protect against cyberattacks is on the network level, not the device level.
THE AVERAGE US EMPLOYEE SAVES 81
MINUTES PER WEEK
THANKS TO BYOD. Source: Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group Horizons surveys, 2012-13
Determine the Amount of Your Investment.
A typical company will require relatively low investments to facilitate Comprehensive BYOD. The main cost areas include software (primarily collaboration tools), network and operations, access policy and security, and wide-area network telecommunications costs. These costs are remarkably consistent across countries. An architectural approach to BYOD—developing a step-by-step approach to supporting mobile computing across the entire network—will reduce costs and increase security in the long run, making BYOD worth the investment, at whatever maturity level a company begins its journey.
Most companies will fi nd that BYOD pays for itself. Through BYOD, companies save on hardware costs (employees purchase their own devices); support costs (streamlined support options such as user communities, wikis, and forums); and telecommunications costs (migrating some mobile users from corporate data plans to self-funded plans). By “doing BYOD right,” companies can lower costs while gaining happier employees. A true win-win.
Joseph Bradley is the managing director of the Internet of Everything Practice for Cisco Consulting Services.
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