 | Issue: | North America II 2015 |
| Article no.: | 1 | |
| Topic: | The changing IT needs of global enterprises in the emerging BYO (bring your own) world | |
| Author: | Carl Friedholm | |
| Title: | VP & GM, Telecom Division | |
| Organisation: | Cass Information Systems | |
| PDF size: | 379KB |
About author
Carl Friedholm, Vic President & General Manager, Cass Information Systems, Telecom Division
A 25-year veteran of IT, Carl serves as VP & GM of Cass Telecom, a division of Cass Information Systems (NASDAQ: CASS). Carl is responsible for the architecture and delivery of a broad suite of managed solutions that enable global enterprises to maximize the value of their investments in mobile and fixed communications, as well as IT infrastructure. In 2014, Carl and his team were awarded a US patent (#8,744,935) for their unique solution for managing expenses related to employee use of personally owned devices in a BYOD environment.
Prior to joining Cass, Carl co-founded Profit Lab Inc. He has also served as Director of IT for both Spartan International and Commonwealth Energy System.
Carl holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Bryant University.
Article abstract
There will always be corporate-owned devices. But those devices, more and more, will be held by upper management and those employees in positions requiring shared resources. The majority of corporate workforces will likely be supplying their own devices. It makes sense, too. The technology that workplaces offer is, in many cases, no better than or inferior to that used at home by a growing number of employees. Even when that’s not the case, familiarity and convenience are reason enough for most employees to get behind the BYO movement.
Full Article
When Cass Information Systems acquired ProfitLab, the expense management company that I co-founded, camera phones had been available in North America for all of two years, Motorola’s RAZR was wildly popular and the first iPhone was three years away from transforming the market. That seems like a lifetime ago. But it was actually 2004.
Little more than ten years have passed since a viable camera was combined with a cellphone. Yet, today, if you want to buy a phone without a camera function, you will likely have to visit eBay and search for “paper weights.” And that’s how technology is: it has its own idea of time. Just as there are dog years there are technology years. There is nothing we can do—and, though they’ll hate to hear it, nothing corporate IT can do—to slow it down. It’s out of our control. We cannot predict which apps will be developed tomorrow or what software will look like two years from now. But that doesn’t mean that these changes are not something for which we cannot plan.
For the enterprise, that planning would be simple—or at least less difficult—if every device were corporate-owned and every employee followed IT’s lead without question or fail. That world does not exist. The reality is that there are countless studies indicating employees prefer to use their own devices and will actually use those personal devices to access corporate data despite any policy disallowing such use . And while we cannot predict the technology we’ll be using two years from now, we can safely predict that human nature will go unchanged in that regard. This can be a good thing, though.
For every study revealing employees’ tendencies to access corporate resources on unauthorized devices, there are at least two studies suggesting employees are actually more productive away from the office . That increase in productivity has been attributed to longer hours, shorter breaks, fewer sick days and fewer overall distractions (to say nothing of the potential shift in overhead costs and decrease in attrition rates). While those studies concern strictly work-from-home scenarios and while BYO is certainly tied into that, BYO encompasses more than telecommuting. Still, the results of those studies are instructive. The future will reward those companies that embrace change and use the will of the people to their advantage—whether it means more telecommuting, more personally liable devices or, most likely, a combination of the two.
BYO is here to stay
You’ve likely heard of the consumerization of IT, as it has been covered in the press extensively. It all comes back to the realization that technology has its own idea of time, that it changes daily and that those changes often originate in the consumer space. New technologies, whether it’s the next camera phone or the next time-saving application, will be developed in that space. It means consumer technology will only become a greater part of the corporate landscape. And corporate IT has a chance to spur that growth—or at least foster it—by opening itself to the idea of BYO.
Whether it means software developed to maximize efficiencies away from the office, apps designed to integrate with corporate resources or technology that increases the security of corporate data, the expansion of BYO will only encourage more innovation, if for no other reason than the expansion of the marketplace. In other words, it’s all about supply and demand. And, from what we can tell, the market will definitely expand.
At Cass, we reviewed the trends of our current BYO clients—that is, clients that offer some form of BYO to their employees—and what we discovered is that the movement isn’t just here to stay, it’s here to dominate. For the twelve-month period beginning in January 2014, BYO participation increased across the board. Again, not one of our clients implementing a BYO program saw a reduction in its number of participants. To that point, the average change in corporate-owned devices declined by more than 8% and individual-liable devices participating in BYO programs increased more than 25%.
End users will define the endpoints
There will always be corporate-owned devices. But those devices, more and more, will be held by upper management and those employees in positions requiring shared resources. The majority of corporate workforces will likely be supplying their own devices. It makes sense, too. The technology that workplaces offer is, in many cases, no better than or inferior to that used at home by a growing number of employees. Even when that’s not the case, familiarity and convenience are reason enough for most employees to get behind the BYO movement.
While we cannot predict what it will be, in a few short years, there will be some other functionality added to our smartphones or to our watches (or even glasses) that today is only an idea on a napkin or a sketch in a designer’s laptop. And that advancement will make us even more dependent on our personal devices. There’s room for growth there, too, as only 80% of people between the ages of 18-44 cite checking their smartphone as the very first thing they do upon waking up. The first thing corporate IT must do? Embrace BYO in general.
Acknowledging that, accepting that this is how the current generation (and certainly any future generation) prefers to work, will go a long way toward a successful mobile roadmap. An important aspect requires that IT become less of a provider and more of an enabler—a keeper of centralized data and an enabler of access to it. And it is less about resistance—less about saying, “no”—and more about using the workforce to your advantage. Oddly, it’s not far removed from one of the key principles of judo: resisting a more powerful opponent will lead to your defeat. While in no way is IT in a battle with end-users, the relationship does help us to remember that corporate IT must not take a draconian approach to mobile policies. This is not to say that a mobile policy shouldn’t incorporate mobile device management (MDM). In fact, it’s just the opposite: the policy must incorporate MDM.
Keeping up with the Joneses
Corporate IT must put itself in the shoes of a regular employee. If employees are going to be comfortable using their personal devices for work, they need to be assured that the company isn’t also monitoring their personal lives via pictures, location services or communications. Obviously, when it comes to policy adoption, companies want users to participate. Otherwise, we’re back to square one in which end users access corporate resources regardless of permission—or, worse, without knowledge. So it becomes incumbent upon the company to establish a fair set of policy standards and tools to protect both parties.
For example, a company needs to be able to wipe all corporate communications, information and applications from the device. However, end users need to understand that, provided they remain in compliance with corporate policies, personal data and communications will not be affected by any such wiping. And corporate IT can best accomplish this by leveraging an EMM platform that allows either itself or its managed mobility services (MMS) vendor to deploy the apps and data the end user needs, while controlling that data and preventing it from leaving the secure environment The end user’s personal data remains separated from corporate data so, in the event the device needs to be wiped, the device can be cleaned of corporate information without touching vacation pictures and personal email.
Remote wiping is just the tip of the iceberg. An effective policy will address everything from acceptable usage to reimbursement. This is a conversation IT, Legal, Sales, Finance, HR and other key stakeholders will have. Yes, that means collaboration. And, in most cases, those companies can seek guidance from their respective MMS providers. The point is that all of these people come together to make sure the keys are handed over to the end user (and the end user actually wants them).
Firing on all cylinders
So we’ve already established that, in general, the people want the devices they’re already accustomed to—whether that’s a smartphone or a laptop or even a watch. And they want the freedom to choose, the freedom to access corporate data when and where they want. And we’ve also established that workers, in many instances, are more productive when given a longer leash. If corporate IT can do its part to give them that, well, everyone wins. For corporate IT, that means a commonsense approach to its BYO program, a policy that ensures acceptance and adherence. And a policy that gives the power back to the people. This means the core function of IT must continue to change. Only then will those advances that are being made every single day in the consumer world have a chance to positively affect the business world. I mentioned handing the keys over earlier. To stay with that analogy, this is, in effect, removing the governor. And for business, that can only mean one thing: full speed ahead.
