Embrace BYOD or Be Left Behind Says Dell

Published on: 23rd Jan 2013

­The findings of another survey into BYOD conclude that approximately 70% of companies believe that it can improve their work processes and help them work better in the future, while an estimated 59% believe they would be at a competitive disadvantage without BYOD.

According to the survey by Dell Quest Software of nearly 1,500 IT decision makers, organizations are optimistic about the potential corporate gains of BYOD, reporting they would be at a competitive disadvantage without it.

Some of the key findings include:

• An estimated three quarters of those polled stated that BYOD can only deliver massive benefits if the specific needs and rights of each user are understood; while only an estimated 17% of organizations encourage BYOD and who actively manage any device employees wish to use -- showing they really understand the need to empower employees.
• On average, survey respondents identified four personal gains for their employees, including more flexible working hours, along with the ability to foster creativity, speed innovation, and facilitate teamwork/collaboration.

According to the survey results, companies with mature BYOD programs are most likely to achieve the most benefits; IT managers in Beijing, China were the most optimistic in reporting potential gains.

Singapore leads the list in putting users first, followed by U.K., Australia, France and Italy; United States ranks lowest in the management of users as more important than devices. 

Over half of respondents state that BYOD has completely changed their IT culture (approximately 56%) and/or business culture (approximately 54%) in their organization.

How Worldwide BYOD Stacks up

• The U.S., Beijing region and Australia represent the top three countries that encourage BYOD by actively managing and supporting any device that users want to bring into the corporate environment; France, Germany and the U.K. are the bottom three in providing this level of support.
• The two technology areas most commonly implemented first for BYOD are desktop virtualization and mobile device management (MDM). France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Australia implemented desktop virtualization first, while Singapore, India, Beijing, the U.K., and U.S. started with MDM.
• In India and Beijing, all the organizations polled plan to, or already offer some support for personal devices.
• Only an estimated 19% in Germany said users would be required to purchase a support program for all personal devices--the only country lower than this is the U.K. However, around three in ten organizations in Germany state that their employees will not be required to adhere to any regulations when it comes to devices in their BYOD policy.
• Beijing, India and France were the top three countries to report that any BYOD support policies would require employees to ready their own devices for corporate use.

Carol Fawcett, chief information officer, Dell Software Group: "In my previous role as CIO of Quest Software, our IT empowered nearly 4,000 employees across 60 offices in 23 countries to use their preferred mobile devices whether they were phones, tablets, or non-standard laptops to do their jobs. Instead of worrying about their devices, we focused on enabling access to the apps and data needed by the appropriate individuals regardless of device. We found this approach allowed us to be much more strategic and enabled us to focus on our biggest BYOD problems: security, access rights and data leakage."

"The results of this latest BYOD survey reinforce the importance of putting users first in order to develop the most effective policies and turn BYOD into a long-term, sustainable business benefit."

 

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