Case Study 12

The pleasure and Pitfalls of BYOD

Q1: What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work? 

Advantages:

•    Employees can use their own smart phones would allow companies to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money on these devices.•    Easier for the company to keep track of each mobile device and easy to roll out software upgrades or fixes because all employees were using the similar devices. 

Disadvantages:

•    Because the employee work with more than one type of mobile device and operating system, company will need to quickly and flexibly confirm that their employees are still able to remain performance while they are using the mobile device.•    For those companies who want to provide adequate technical support for every employee could be difficult with the variety of phones and operating systems available.•    On the other hand, mobility puts assets and data at greater risk compare to if they were only located within company wall on company machines.

Please find below the table for the ease of reference:

Advantages	Disadvantages
Cost Savings: Within BYOD environments, the costs associated are very personal, which means the individual employee will bear the cost themselves rather than the companies paying for it. Most workers willingly purchase their preferred laptop or mobile device, including their data plan, and simply want to use it for business purposes. This can mean significant savings for your IT department as compared with the investment in company-issued devices.	Managing Security: One of the riskiest aspects of a BYOD environment is managing security. Every BYOD policy should require minimum security measures. Consider scenarios such as an employee who loses a mobile phone or laptop and puts sensitive company data in the wrong hands. Develop a process for establishing those controls before the employee is allowed to access company data is essential.
Enhanced Productivity of the Employees: Mobile devices offer the benefits of convenience and speed. For instances, sales executives can do their jobs while traveling, management can keep up with emails or review important documents on their tablets, and anyone can stay connected with their own smart phone as long as they are connected with the internet.	Controlling Acceptable Use: Allowing employees to use their own personal devices means that your company has suddenly lost some levels of control over the appropriate use of the technology. Unlike a company-issued laptop or device, which comes with an acceptable use policy, it’s not exactly easy to control how someone uses a personal device. That’s why many companies are turning to BYOD policies to set reasonable expectations.
Improved Employee Morale: When people are able to use the devices they already know and love, and achieve higher success rates because of it, they will be happier working for your company. Studies have shown that even when employees are responsible for fronting the cost of the device and cell coverage, they are still happier using their personal devices than bulk IT department issued devices.	Retrieving Data: Your BYOD policy should also address what happens if/when an employee leaves your company. Who will discontinue their access to your company data? Do they have their own phone number? What if clients were calling that number directly? In a sales environment, this is particularly risky. An ex-employee may become a direct competitor with easy access to your client’s contact info and vice versa.

Q2: What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

Management:

• If employees are allowed to work with more than one type of mobile device and operating system, companies need an effective way to keep track of all the devices employees are using.• When employees make change to their personal phones, such as switching cellular carriers, changing their phone number or buying a new mobile devices together. Company will need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to remain productive.• A firm’s software development teams need to have one professional focused on ensuring that new applications will be easily usable and useful on smart phones. The applications and software need to be used on mobile devices to connect to the firm`s existing IT platform and company-wide CRM, SCM, and ERP systems. The mobility experts can help company leverage mobility more effectively.

Organization:

• Integrate mobile devices to corporate and it strategy company needs to carefully examine their business process and determine whether or not mobility makes sense for them• The security, inventory management, support, integrating mobile devices into pre-existing IT functions and systems, and measuring return on investment should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smart phones for work.• Firms need and 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 company needs to provide adequate technical support for every employee who is using a variety of phones and operating systems.

Technology:

• With the variety of phones and operating system available, providing adequate technical support for every employee could be difficult• A firm software development teams can benefits from having one person specifically focused on ensuring that new application will be easily usable and useful on smartphone• The corporate IT resources are important for managing and maintaining a large number of devices in an organization. The company’s networks must be configured to receive connections from the employees’ mobile devices and operating systems to access the company’s information.• A firm’s software development teams need to have one professional focused on ensuring that new applications will be easily usable and useful on smart phones. The applications and software need to be used on mobile devices to connect to the firm`s existing IT platform and company-wide CRM, SCM, and ERP systems. The mobility experts can help company leverage mobility more effectively.

Q3: Compare the BYOD experiences of IBM and Intel. Why did BYOD at Intel work so well?

BYOD at Intel work so well might be due to the goal of Intel is make employees more happy and productive to work efficiency but not to save money. Employees like being able to use their own devices and apps alongside specialized Intel apps and it has been one of the reasons why their strategy works better compared to others. Besides, Intel’s company developed different policies, rules and access limits for each type of devices such as smart phones, tablets, or laptop with multiple levels of control in place.

BYOD experiences of IBM	BYOD experiences of Intel
There is only creating new challenges for the IT department and did not save any money for IBM because employees’ devices are full with the software.	Intel approached BYOD in a positive manner, trying to find ways to make it work rather than to defeat it.
IBM equips the mobile devices of the latter category of employees with additional software such as programmes that encrypt information as it travels to and from corporate networks.	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. Intel knows what their employees need.
BYOD improve employees’ job satisfaction and productivity but cause some problems if managed improperly.	Intel program offers 40 proprietary applications, including travel tools to help schedule a flight and conference room finders.

Q4: Allowing employees use their own smartphones 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.