The BYOD Avalanche: 68% of IT Managers See Rising Mobility Costs in 2013
The BYOD Avalanche: 68% of IT Managers See Rising Mobility Costs in 2013 by UCStrategies Staff
A study conducted by iPass and MobileIron uncovered the dramatic impact the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon is making on IT departments. For one, 68 percent of IT managers polled said that they expect rising costs related to mobility in 2013. The surge in expenditure is brought about by the increase in the number of employees who use mobile devices compounded by the tendency to use multiple mobile devices.
According to the overview of the Mobile Enterprise Survey Results 2013, given the shape of the BYOD landscape, the “end-user now has the ability to influence IT policy, demanding less IT control and more accommodation of employee-owned devices in the workplace.”
Other findings of the study are summarized as follows:
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56 percent of companies modified their corporate policies in 2012 to better accommodate their employees’ use of personal devices.
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81 percent of companies surveyed said they allow personal devices to be used in the workplace.
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54 percent of companies formally introduced BYOD policies.
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Companies in North America are more likely to put together BYOD policies than European companies.
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There are more companies that simply permit BYOD “than have policies for it.”
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The top two BYOD issues that frustrate IT departments are “onboarding and supporting personal devices.” Also, it is noteworthy that security risks associated with BYOD are far more outweighed by onboarding and supporting personal devices.
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57 percent of those that were polled see an increase in next year’s mobile data costs, largely attributed to smartphones and existing 3G/4G data usage.
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IT is seen to be “more bullish” when it comes to Windows Phone 8 than on BlackBerry 10 handsets. 34 percent of IT managers surveyed say they plan to support BB 10. On the other hand, 45 percent say they plan to support Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 line of devices.
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73 percent of companies surveyed have support for the iPad.
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Between 2011 and 2012, the use of tablets surged in all non-executive departments. Legal and HR register the highest increase, followed by finance and accounting departments.
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55 percent of companies surveyed have experienced a security issue in 2012, basically in the form of lost or stolen mobile phones.
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55 percent of IT managers surveyed use Wi-Fi apps for work purposes.
Regarding the IT frustration brought about by factors such as onboarding and supporting personal devices, Bill Murphy, CTO of the Blackstone Group, had this to say when he commented on BYOD non-iPad tablets: “Right now, the amount we do for our users as it relates to mobile devices is vast.” Murphy went on to explain, “If we had to support 15 types of devices, we wouldn’t have the staff to be able to handle it.”
Moreover, a Forrester report said, “For CIOs, BYOD is both an opportunity to outsource cost to employees and also a call to action to implement security models and application architectures that are device-agnostic. Only in this way can you get out of the business of device provisioning and into the business of service provisioning, and that's where you can make a real difference in employee's satisfaction and productivity.” (KOM) Link. Link.