Bring Your Own Device or is that Bring Your Own Designer Smartphone?

Bring Your Own Device or is that Bring Your Own Designer Smartphone?

Bring Your Own Device – the ‘new’ company car?

There is no doubt that fashion has some influence on the take up of Bring Your Own Device. About 32 years ago I remember a near walk out of an entire Field Service Team when the company announced it was changing from their standard Ford Escort company car to a Talbot Alpine. I have had near mutiny with some of my own team members when their company issued Audi A4 was in for repair and they were given a Skoda loan car – “I can’t be seen a Skoda” I remember one team member saying in a state of shock. But I hadn’t really thought of the mobile phone handset in the same light until Wednesday evening when I attended a BYOD talk at The IET (The Institute of Engineers and Technicians).

Bring Your Own Device

“…the fact that the personal devices are going to be changed frequently potentially adding to the burden of an already ‘BYOD stressed’ IT team.”

The presenter raised the point that fashion and the desire to be seen with best of breed played a big part in our desire to use our own devices at work. The queues outside Apple stores whenever there is a new release of the iPhone were perhaps a small clue! This also highlights the fact that the personal devices are going to be changed frequently potentially adding to the burden of an already ‘BYOD stressed’ IT team.

“…if organisations do not introduce a BYOD facility, it will happen anyway.”

Another interesting point is the fact that if organisations do not introduce a BYOD facility, it will happen anyway. I have seen this first hand, especially within IT teams. Once one person has the ability to use their own ‘best of breed’ (in their opinion) smart phone others will want to use their own devices. A couple of years ago I saw this phenomenon during the deployment of a large contact centre. The deployment was in phases and some departments were given their new handsets in advance so they could familiarise themselves with the facilities. This caused some real demand with other departments as they wanted these modern best of breed handsets on their desks. If someone had told me 40 years ago when I first worked on a 700 series handset that I would at some stage in the future witness office staff fighting to be the first to get a new handset I would have laughed and then checked the date to see if it was 1st April.

I believe Bring Your Own Device is here to stay and organisations need to find the best way to introduce BYOD facilities without exposing themselves to security risks and legal cases. My view is the security risks can be mitigated to a certain degree through a combination of policy and technology, bearing in mind though that the smart phone operating system plays a major role in this. The legal risks are more complex and need to be covered by a specific policy that each individual user understands and accepts. There are some serious legal issues surrounding mobile phone security that could result in custodial sentences so this really is a serious matter.

As a user of BYOD technology I love the convenience of being able to use the device that is most appropriate to me in the moment. I am not sure I could be accused of wanting to bring my own device as a fashion accessory as I usually buy technology at the back end of a release, just before the next model goes to market. I only upgrade my vehicle if I have to and the same goes for technology, if it works I don’t see a need to change it. I should also go on record to say that I quite like Skodas and my Talbot Alpine was OK too.

“…so for now Bring Your Own Device is one of my favourite recent technology trends.”

I know from personal experience BYOD makes me more productive. I would say the average document I produce these days is produced on at least four devices. When producing long documents, I would be moving about between the devices at different times of the day or days of the week depending on where I am at the time. The fact that I can simply develop an idea and expand upon it almost at will is a major boost for me and I would hate to have to go back to one device for work and another for personal use. Now that really would slow me down, so for now Bring Your Own Device is one of my favourite recent technology trends.