The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolution that is driving change within Enterprise IT departments is merely the tip of the iceberg of a greater trend in the consumerisation of IT that is happening today.
As the Bring Your Own (BYO) revolution continues to expand, IT departments will shift their focus from simply managing back-end systems to focusing on how to make the people within their organisations more productive and collaborative. Those companies who best understand how to leverage the people-centric environment will increase their chances of success moving forward.
In the corporate business environment where Return On Investment (ROI) is everything, managers will go to great lengths to justify the ROI on software projects, often neglecting the true impact of the ROI from increased employee productivity.
While BYOD has received the bulk of the publicity, the BYO phenomenon is impacting all areas of IT, not just devices. Other forms of BYO include BYOS – Bring Your Own Software, or BYOA – Bring Your Own Applications as it is sometimes know. In addition, we also have BYOF – Bring Your Own Files which is being supported by services such as Box and Dropbox.
Users will no longer wait for their IT department to give them a software program or access to a file server, they will just find a way to do it all them selves, download the app, share the files on Dropbox etc, all of the time circumventing the companies security policies. Users now want IT-related issues handled on-demand and if they can’t get it from the company, they will find a way to do it themselves.
While BYOD is a remarkable trend, these other IT trends are remaking how Enterprise IT departments look, work and function – and they are all being done with a user-centric focus.
The consumerisation of IT is expanding the use of technology within organisations at a rapid rate, faster than at any other time in history. While the emphasis historically for Enterprise IT departments was on core business systems, today’s focus is on the people and how they can be made more productive and collaborative.
The one benefit for companies with this fast change is that those developing Enterprise mobile apps for business functions are seeing the ROI for mobile app development pay back at a faster rate than for traditional software projects, which should ensure that the technology revolution continues, to the benefit of all.
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22 Comments
Mark
My son is looking at going to a trade school to become an IT tech and this is something that he is going to have to know how to deal with this stuff as well as the regular computer stuff as well. This will be good for him to read because of that situation, hopefully that will make it so he is one step ahead of the rest.
Annie
While there are many aspects of business that are being transformed because of the BYOD movement, the BYOS trend may significantly change software piracy, as well as that organization that company that regulates software piracy and which advertises on the radio air waves, encouraging employees to report software piracy in exchange for a monetary reward. BYOS concept could well put them out of business as app use goes from the local OS environment to online.
William
It is pretty clear that Bring Your Own Computer programs are becoming more popular in the workplace because today's workers are no longer content to work on locked-down, one-size-fits-all, corporate-issued desktops. I think this is the long anticipated evolution of software usage on the business level. I was hearing about cloud based apps way back in the late 90's. Back then it was only a dream. Is that what BYOS actually is?
Craig
Will a continued growth in the BYOD trend bring about more productivity or will it result in increased liability? I ask this because any company that is open to either BYOD or BYOS policies are also opening the company LAN / WAN to more security risks. So what happens if an employ or subcontractor connects to the company's server and inadvertently transmits a malicious or destructive virus? A lawsuit is inevitable.
Mark
The fact is there are certain software applications that developers and designers prefer to use and as an employer, you want your workers to do their job in an efficient manner. You want to maximize their productivity and the way to do that is to let your workers use the tools they are most proficient with. So the concept of BYOS makes perfect business sense.
Lillian
I have worked at various web design and advertising companies as a graphic artist, video editor and web designer. The problem that is the common denominator in each of those companies has been that they use different design software suites. On top of that, I am a PC user and most desing companies use MAC. BYOS / D is a solution for me for the future. I just hope my future employer accepts it.
Gene
I have been reading a lot about this lately and to my surprise I am actually starting to understand the concept and see the benefits for a company that does this and the BYOD program. You have a very good blog here and the information that you have provided is top notch. Your post looks great and you should keep up the good work, you'll go far.
Kenneth
You have had a lot of great blogs on this subject and the subject of what the companies can do to make sure things are secure. Is this something that you offer as a service, to go in and set up the company so that they have some control over the files and data being shared with personal devices? Is this something that is going to force the IT guys out?
Gussie
Wouldn't BYOS bring a completely different set of problems to the table for any company? What would be the advantages of using your own soft ware on something that the company already has set up? I think this is just a bad idea for many reasons and should not be allowed at all, BYOD is bad enough with out causing more problems.
George
IT admins have questions about the influx of personal smartphones and tablets in the enterprise. They worry about it. And they often need help figuring out what to do about bring your own device (BYOD) management, security and application delivery. But there is little information about BYOS software in the work place. I think it is just as important because of the rapid state of change in the software industry.
Mary
One of the clear trends I've seen emerge in the past year is the Bring Your Own Device phenomenon in the enterprise environment. In the span of less than a year, I have seen a dramatic shift in what smartphone platforms employees are allowed to use. As we all know BlackBerry was the standard, however now employees are allowed to bring in their iPhone or Android devices into the corporate environment.
James
Organizations should properly protect their apps and only allow access to them by the right people on proper networks. I don't think there is a single correct answer for how to manage this for any company, but organizations need to ask questions about which devices to support, what protection and security plans and if staff members will always have access to those apps.
Amanda
This is definitely looking passed the BYOD craze that is going on and taking it to a completely different level. Is there a security that would prevent stealing valuable information from the company systems with some of the software that they could possibly bring in to the work place? This is getting beyond scary when you think of the affects that could happen.
Richard
How is BYOS going to work in some companies they have highly secret information about what they are working on and the plans etc. for that and if this is allowed those plans and things stand a chance of getting out to the public don't they? For instance what about the people working on Air Force One leaking security information?
Frankie
Managing security for BYOD programs that allow employee owned mobile devices to connect to corporate networks seems to be getting more complex. Now I am learning that organizations frequently attempt to manage those risks by implementing costly and hard to manage solutions. What the various solution strategies are must be a complex subject for even the most experienced and gifted developer. It seems like it would take teams of programmers to setup a solid network.
Jamie
I envision perhaps a not so distant future where an organization has a BYOD/S environment and team members work in sync via their own mobile apps. Each employee uses his/her favorite device and connects into the company network to access a centralized project file system where workers can work in unison, but not necessarily together in person. That sounds like science fiction, but the more I read about the rapid growth of BYOD, the more I realize we are already here.
Charles
There are some school systems are faced with the difficult challenge of keeping up with technology trends on bare-bones budgets? Many systems across the country are turning to a "Bring Your Own Device concept, allowing teachers, students and staffs to use their personal computers, iPads, and cell phones on campus. I saw one such case in the local news in Miami, FL recently.
Judson
Could it be that some IT managers are strongly pushing BYoD because their agenda is not to necessarily improve the company's digital infrastructure, but also because they are looking to become the next company hero, by introducing / ushering a new tech era for their company. It reminds me of the movie, Face Off, when the villain, whose identity was swapped, used his inside sinister knowledge to become national hero. Perhaps IT managers are Archers' themselves.
Richard
It looks like the bring your own device' revolution has spawned the bring your own software' movement. Both of these concepts seem like they can work well together, but what happens when users / employees bringing their own software goes wrong? This can happen for a myriad of reasons. Maybe an employee installs a malicious app in his own computer and a virus or worm infects the company's network. How costly would that be? No wonder many companies are staying clear of implementing this.
Dexter
BYOD is a widely acknowledged trend. Not so widely acknowledged, but equally important to productivity and data and network security, is its lesser-known byproduct, BYOS. I guess one was inevitable because of the other. Workers are getting accustomed to using their own laptops and phones; it's not surprising that they want to use their preferred file hosting services, social networks, and productivity applications as well.
William
Employees who are offered bring-your-own-device initiatives and input into IT decisions are likely to be more productive in the workplace, and research backs this up. Today's businesses need a smarter, more mobile approach. If an organization wishes to remain in a very competitive market, it needs to open its mind and broaden its perspectives. Eventually, I see all companies having to accept and implement this into their infrastructurers.
Debra
It should be very interesting to see in the next few years where this BYOD movement goes. The evolution of it should be very interesting to witness and live through as we watch technology - our mobile devices - evolve before our eyes, and our awareness will evolve along with the technology that encompasses our lives. Years down the line, we'll be able to look back on today and realize that we lived through the birth of a glorious new age.