With the recent boom in smartphones showing no signs of
slowing down a new trend is emerging within businesses where employees would
rather use their own personal device than the standard company issued handset.
'Consumerisation' as its being labelled can have real
benefits for businesses who adopt this policy but at the same time it doesn't
come without it's headaches.
The upsides are if employees are prepared to pay or at
least subsidise the cost of hardware then this eases any capital investment
required for the business to adopt this technology but better still according
to a recent study, Gartmore claim that mobilised workers i.e. those with a
smartphone, are on average 240 hours more productive each year than their
non-mobilised counterparts.
However the downsides are clear, scaling up to manage
different user platforms, managing security on the enterprise network and
bringing personal apps and social networking into the work environment are just
some of challenges that lie ahead. Then
you're into who pays for the smartphone data plan and what's the data being
used for, business or personal?
If you think this won't apply to your organisation you
might also be interested to know that Gartmore also predict that by 2014 90% of
organisations will support corporate applications on personal devices.
If you'd like to know about managing multiple mobile platforms on your business network contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.
Andrew Edgar
Managing Director
8020 Ltd
01387 250008
