Enterprise Communications Featured Article

Businesses of all different sizes are increasingly realizing they need to manage employee-owned devices that are being used in the workplace, and for big enterprises this is especially important.

The need is in large part being driven by the bring your own device (BYOD) trend. BYOD is clearly becoming more prevalent. Just look at the projections. It was predicted that by the end of 2013, 62 percent of companies – included in a global survey – will have BYOD policies in place, according to TechRepublic. In addition, by 2017 half of employers will require workers to supply their own devices – such as tablets or smartphones – for the workplace, Gartner (News - Alert) predicted. Some 38 percent of companies included in a global survey said they will no longer provide devices to their employees by 2016.

Last year, Gartner found BYOD to be occurring most frequently at medium-sized or large organizations ($500 million to $5 billion in annual revenue, with 2,500 to 5,000 employees). Businesses in the United States are twice as likely to allow BYOD as those in Europe, where BYOD has the lowest adoption of all the areas surveyed. Employees in Brazil, China or India are the most likely to be using a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, at work, Gartner said. In another 2013 survey, Analysys (News - Alert) Mason found that 52 percent of respondents already used their personal mobile phone for work.

Of course, BYOD provides many benefits, such as allowing more flexibility when it comes to mobile workforces, providing increased employee satisfaction and lowering costs for businesses, according to recent reports.

But it is important for businesses to actually find out for what uses employees are using their own devices.

Analysys Mason's Connected Consumer Survey showed that 59 percent of the time they were used for incoming and outgoing calls, and 21 percent of the time they were used for SMS. The survey looked at trends in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK and the United States. It was pointed out by Analysys Mason, too, that “these services do not require connection to the corporate network (either for connectivity or to access corporate data).” 

In addition, the survey showed that email was 14 percent of BYOD activity, and accessing business applications contributed for 4 percent. Some other uses were accessing documents or a calendar, instant messaging and maps.

When it comes to mobile device management (MDM), small- and medium-sized businesses are opting for many offerings, given that cloud-based solutions are increasing options. As a result, cloud-based MDM revenue will jump from $574.8 million in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2018 – which represents a compound annual growth rate of 27.3 percent, according to Analysys Mason.

One reason why the BYOD trend is increasing is that employees want quicker access to information or faster exchange of information between employees or between employees and customers. Now, employees look for their own solutions rather than rely on what companies may offer. That puts pressure on businesses. “The approach toward costly in-house communication tools cannot keep pace with the ever-raising bar users expect, and the associated benefits pale in comparison to those offered by mobile tools on the market now,” according to a recent report from GigaOM Research.

Businesses may want to empower employees with new mobile tools to improve communication and collaboration in workplaces. Mobile devices have a unique role in the solution. “Mobile acts as a major disruptor to traditional communications tools due to the unique contextual capabilities it brings to processes and the unprecedented extensibility of application-based tools over legacy on-premise, capital-intensive tools,” the GigaOM report said. In such a situation, management of mobile is important when it comes to enterprise mobile strategy.

Still, another possible option for many companies concerned about the risks associated with employee-owned devices is a new trend called choose your own device (CYOD), where employees can select the device they will be using. It is seen by many businesses as a better option than BYOD because it lets them keep control over what the device is used for and limits security risk.

In a survey, Azzurri Communications (News - Alert) found that CYOD is in effect at some 31 percent of the UK organizations questioned and 60 percent of those responding identified it as the best option.

"CYOD is therefore the best of both worlds; a controlled network environment that still offers employees the benefit of a single work/home device of their choice," Rufus Grid, Azzurri Communications' chief technology officer, was quoted by an article appearing on the Buzz Conferencing website.

As an added plus, both BYOD and CYOD can be used with conference calling and lets employees work remotely or take part in meetings and still remain in touch – no matter where they are located, according to Azzurri Communications.

In addition, enterprises as well as small- to medium-sized businesses have many options when it comes to tools and services to manage employee devices. It was found out that communications service providers (CSPs) and vendors are looking to add services to their MDM products to make sure SMBs and larger enterprises have access to tools to secure data and IP, and manage mobile devices.

To understand what MDM uses may be needed, just look at what Apple’s (News - Alert) iOS operating system offers. iOS lets third-party MDM solutions interact with iOS devices wirelessly. IT staff can enroll devices in an enterprise environment, configure and update settings, monitor compliance, and remotely wipe or lock managed devices.