The pleasure and Pitfalls of BYOD (Page 241)

1.What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

Advantages

Employees using their own smartphones would allow companies to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending company funds on the devices. Mobility experts can help a company leverage mobility more effectively where it is easier to keep track of each mobile device and to roll out software upgrades or fixes. Employees can be more productive and happier with a BYOD policy in place.

Disadvantages

IT departments need to overcome several logistical hurdles before allowing employees to use their own smartphones, including security, inventory management, support, integrating mobile devices into pre-existing IT functions and systems, and measuring return on investment. When employees are not able to access critical data or encounter other problems with their mobile devices, they will need assistance from the information systems department. Some devices are much more prone to hackers thereby threatening the security of corporate networks and it puts assets and data at greater risk compare to if they were only using company desktop within company. Companies will need to quickly and flexibly confirm that their employees are still able to remain performance.

2.What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

Management: When employees make changes to their personal phone, such as switching cellular carriers, changing their phone number, or buying a new mobile device, companies will need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to remain productive.

Organization: Firms need an efficient inventory management system that keeps track of which devices employees are using, where the device is located, whether it is being used, and what software it is equipped with. Besides that, company needs to provide adequate technical support for every employee who is using a variety of phones and operating system. For unprepared companies, keeping track of who gets access to what data could be a nightmare.

Technology: The most popular employer-issued smartphone was Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, which is considered the most secure mobile platform available. The mobile digital landscape is now much more complicated, with a variety of devices and operating systems on the market that do not have well-developed tools for administration and security. The corporate IT resources are important for managing and maintaining a large number of devices in an organization. To access company information, the company’s networks must be configured to receive connections from a device. Virtualization helps companies manage mobile devices easier.

3. Compare the BYOD experiences of IBM and Intel. Why did BYOD at Intel work so well?

• According to the IBM policy, employees who want to use their own devices first must become certified, which they do by passing a mobile security awareness training course. Only then are they eligible to use their own devices. BYOD was not saving IBM any money and actually created new challenges for the IT department because employees’ devices were full of software that IBM could not control. 

• BYOD improved employee job satisfaction and productivity, but it also caused a number of problems when not managed properly. Likewise, Intel hammered out a BYOD strategy and created an end-user service-level agreement that clarified that end users were voluntarily using BYOD rather than being mandated by Intel.

• IBM: BYOD was not saving IBM any money and had caused many new challenges for the IT department because employees’ devices are full of software that IBM doesn’t control. The IT department found it had no grasp of which apps and services employees were using. Employees were unaware of the security risks posed by popular apps. Managers feared employees would put IBM-sensitive information on popular services (eg: Dropbox, iCloud) that would expose the company to theft. Only those devices the IT department has configured can be used to access corporate networks as IT department can erase the memory of the phone remotely if the device is lost or stolen. IBM even turns off Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant, on employees’ iPhones because the spoken queries are uploaded to Apple servers.

• INTEL: The company tried to find ways to make BYOD work rather than find ways to prevent it. It created an end-user service-level agreement that clarified that end users were voluntarily using BYOD rather than being mandated by Intel. The company developed policies, rules, and access limits for each type of device with multiple levels of controls in place. It maintains a list of approved devices and blocks those that don’t meet its requirements from accessing the company network. The company has an internal “app store” and uses a variety of software and security tools to manage devices and access. Intel’s goal for BYOD is not to save money but to make employees happier and more productive which caused the BYOD at Intel work so well.

4.Allowing employees use their own smart- phones for work will save the company money. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Yes, I agree that allowing employees use their own smartphones for work will save the company money.

1. Eliminate monthly plan costs

Shifting an employee from a company-owned device to his own means the company will cut down at least a portion of the monthly service plan cost to the employee. Many companies are providing reimbursement for smart devices, there is typically only a small or no reimbursement for a second device such as a tablet.

2. Eliminate device purchase and upgrade costs

When the cost of purchasing phones, tablets and even laptops can be shifted to employees, the annual cost savings from BYOD can easily be in the hundreds of dollars per employee, per year. Employees are the one that bear the cost of their own electronic devices.

3. Reduce IT or help desk support

Whether your support costs increase or decrease because of BYOD is largely dependent on how many users you support today. But for every employee that goes BYOD rather than with a corporate-owned device, activities related to device and plan provisioning is eliminated. Help desk support might also be reduced considerably for BYOD users.