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Most Companies Will Require You To Bring Your Own Mobile Device By 2017

Posted by samzenpus on from the get-your-own dept.

Lucas123 writes "Half of all employers will require workers to supply their own mobile devices for work purposes by 2017, according to a new Gartner study. Enterprises that offer only corporately-owned smartphones or stipends to buy your own will soon become the exception to the rule in the next few years. As enterprise BYOD programs proliferate, 38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016 and let them use their own, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner. At the same time, security remains the top BYOD concern. 'What happens if you buy a device for an employee and they leave the job a month later? How are you going to settle up? Better to keep it simple. The employee owns the device, and the company helps to cover usage costs,' said David Willis, a distinguished analyst at Gartner."

7 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. So.... by Mitreya · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As enterprise BYOD programs proliferate, 38% of companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016 and let them use their own

    Do they get to monitor communications or wipe my own device now if anything goes wrong?

    1. Re:So.... by admdrew · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yeah, there's software out there to do exactly that, that a lot of employers (I'm in the network security field) already require to be installed if you want to connect to work resources.

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      LegendMUD
    2. Re:So.... by afidel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I see the future of BYOD being running another OS instance for the work apps, or possibly a separate easily switched profile with encrypted storage. One of the biggest hurdles right now with iOS and BYOD is that the end user can easily recover the wiped data from their last icloud backup. There are similar concerns with personal Dropbox accounts, how do you regain control of your corporate data once it's on an account that the user controls? There are solutions to the problem like windows rights management server (DRM for corporate documents) but they don't tend to play well with machines that aren't part of the central infrastructure, and are especially poor at support non-PC platforms.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    3. Re:So.... by afidel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, and VMWare ready for Android devices, and the user profiles from Android 4.2 refined, and the encrypted partition and app space from Good, and a whole host of other existing solutions, but if BYOD is going to become pervasive it's going to need to be built in at the system level and be easy to manage (I have to give RIM credit, balance does a pretty good job of meeting all these needs, it's just a second tier platform at this point).

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    4. Re:So.... by Rich0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm as big a fan of the iPhone as anyone, but the tools you mention don't work for BYOD.

      What you aren't getting is that "Bring Your Own Device" really just means "Pay For The Company's Device."

      The company treats it like they own it. They get admin access. They lock the user from setting preferences (like screen lock settings, etc). They wipe it if they decide they don't need you any longer. They specify what kind of device you can bring.

      Basically you're buying a device, then leasing it free of charge to the company for the duration of your employment. You get it back when you quit.

  2. Re:Subsidised phone is huge bargain for companies by Anonymous+Psychopath · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A company paying $75 or so for monthly smartphone service pays for itself many times over in keeping employees tethered to the business and available for around-the-clock email and messaging. I expect companies will continue paying for service even for BYOD shops. If forcing employees to purchase a phone discourages them from using a phone for work then it will be a huge loss for companies.

    This is how it works where I am (Fortune 500 technology company). The company pays all the service, including my personal calls and data use, and I pay for the phone. They negotiate shorter contract terms and lower up-front device costs. I get my choice of carriers and devices. They also negotiate discounted service pricing for my family.

    The company does not wipe my entire device when I disconnect it from their system and remove their MDM, they just delete their content and leave everything else alone. They do enforce screen lock timeouts and require a PIN or password. They will wipe my device in its entirety if it's stolen.

    This is a sane BYOD policy that balances the desire of the employees to have a choice in their electronic tether with their needs to secure their IP.

    --

    Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

  3. 20 Extra Hours Per Week by Scot+Seese · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Awesome, so as an employee *I* have to pay for my $700 smartphone -AND- the expectation will exist that I will be monitoring emails nights and weekends?

    What a bargain for your employer, by chipping in $50-100/mo to pay for a fraction of your service plan, they get up to 20 hours per week of additional work out of you, according to this study:
    http://www.techvibes.com/blog/byod-trend-is-making-employees-work-an-extra-20-hours-per-week-report-suggests-2012-08-22

    This, on top of inflation-adjusted real wages that have not increased since 1973:
    http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/04/16/the-best-indicator-of-u-s-health-is-wage-growth-or-lack-thereof/

    Slashdot headline next summer: "BYO Desk all the rage among newer workers"

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    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.