BYOT – big headache for IT, big opportunty for vendors

IDC predicts there will be 1.9 billion mobile workers, around 35 percent of the global workforce, by 2013. What are the implications for NZ businesses?

Late 2010 was the first time James* heard of the term ‘bring your own technology’.

At the time all it meant for him was he had to answer the occasional email request from colleagues looking to access work emails on their personal smartphones.

It was not until June of the next year that BYOT became a considerable part of his day to day work.

James leads a small IT team in a New Zealand finance company, and is responsible for managing the IT for over 100 staff.

He says executives and managers bringing in smartphones and tablets initiated the need for BYOT support at his workplace, in particular with the popularity of Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad among senior staff.

“Around June the senior leadership team were coming to me asking how they could get emails on their new iPads. They soon wanted to be able to review reports, edit documents, and take home sensitive data from behind the firewall,” says James.

It was not long before he started facing pressure from both ends of the organisational chart.

“It went from a relatively small group of people we could maintain accountability for, to a large diverse group wanting to access potentially sensitive files,” says James.

He was asked to investigate a business case for BYOT and to develop a strategy around implementing it in the company. But his concerns about device management, security, and application integration were ignored in favour of analyst and vendor recommendations and what he calls an ‘infatuation with new things’.

“I can understand that some people don’t like using company-issued phones or computers. I’ve used a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone before, it’s not the best experience,” says James.

“But it’s not our job as IT to support every device under the sun. We should be encouraging efficiency and security. There’s a reason why we issue corporate-liable devices, they work with the systems that are already in place.”

*James’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

Doing business with Gen Y

James’ story is not an isolated one. A quick look through LinkedIn’s technology discussion boards show the topic of BYOT is high on the minds of many New Zealand IT managers and CIOs, but the debate on its effectiveness in business is still undecided.

Among other things, proponents of BYOT say it empowers staff to take an active role in their own IT needs, increases staff happiness, and leads to better productivity and innovation.

Aaron McDonald, product manager at Gen-i, says BYOT also helps businesses to engage with younger employees entering the workforce for the first time, who have a higher expectation of corporate IT.

He adds there is often opposing views between traditional IT and newer workers who have been immersed in mobile technology since a young age.

“We’ve got a generation of people coming into the workforce who are often more tech-savvy than IT managers in a lot of businesses,” says McDonald.

“It’s a clash of philosophies between the digital migrants and the digital natives.”

McDonald says BYOT enables employees to address their own business requirements quickly through cheap apps, leaving IT to deal with more technically intensive tasks.

“What we find is people who bring in their own devices take responsibility for running that device, and actively seek out the right apps to help enable them in their jobs,” says McDonald.

“This can save IT time, and usually these applications serve the purpose while costing the employer little to nothing.”

Where there might be an increase in costs is through mobile data, he says. In general consumer devices use more data than business devices, which can lead to higher mobile costs for employers.

“Sometimes there is an expectation by employees that if they bring in their device to use for work, the employer will cover the cost or subsidise it,” says McDonald.

“It’s important that any BYOT policy makes it clear what is covered and what isn’t covered by the business.”

McDonald says employers could be surprised with the level of compromise that staff are willing to make to use their personal devices at work.

In a recent survey conducted by Gen-i on its clients’ employees, 73 percent felt that given the benefits of having a single mobile, access to some subsidy to help buy a phone or the ability to use their own along with the lower corporate rates, they would be happy to contribute to cover personal usage.