FEATURE: BYOD
BYOD: bring your
own device, or
bring your own
disaster?
Organisations are both reaping the benefits and
suffering the pain points of the mobile workforce.
By implementing the right policies now, businesses
can enable a steady transition to the hyper-
connected future.
T
he concept of BYOD (bring your
own device) is simultaneously
an opportunity and challenge
for CIOs and IT staff. In economies
such as South Africa where companies
don’t necessarily have the money
to standardise on top-tier hardware,
enabling employees to rely on their own
devices saves fortunes on investment,
that’s according to Brian Timperley,
Managing Director and co-founder at
Turrito Networks. He points out that
with BYOD, businesses can ensure their
staff’s connectivity and availability, on
often high-quality devices, without any
capex requirements.
Whilst the initial appeal of BYOD was
pushing the device and connectivity
costs to employees, the flexibility and
choice that BYOD offers has become a
key enabler for improving productivity
and efficiency in the workplace.
Devices can be customised with apps
and productivity tools to improve
employee performance, but BYOD can
also help to achieve overall business
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INTELLIGENTCIO
goals, as Ian Jansen van Rensburg,
Senior Manager: Systems Engineering
at VMware Southern Africa says, “Could
your salesforce use their mobile devices
in the field to engage prospects and
customers? Does your organisation’s
global reach make it vital for employees
to receive emails around the clock? Are
your employees interested in teleworking
or alternative work schedules? A BYOD
programme can help streamline business
processes, drive sales and improve
customer engagement.”
CYOD vs BYOD vs COPE
There is a lot of debate surrounding how
mobile devices are functioning in the
enterprise and the best approach for
ensuring you reap the optimal benefits
of this shift. CIOs are currently choosing
from the following approaches: BYOD,
COPE (corporate owned, personally
enabled) and a middle-ground between
the two, CYOD (choose your own device).
BYOD allows employees to use their
personal devices at work. “This might
prove optimal for some companies as it
reduces the responsibility that’s placed on
the business surrounding procurement,
device upgrades and overall support.
Based on the growing consumerisation
of mobility in the workplace, this has
become the most popular option,” says
Jansen Van Rensburg.
COPE devices allow employees in the
field to use one device for both business
and personal use, but the ability of
the IT department to see information
stored within the device can introduce
problems with breach of privacy.
CYOD allows employers to compile a
list of approved devices for employees
to choose from; the employee owns
the device (either paid for personally
or subsidised by the company) but
companies still maintain some control
by eliminating the variability of the
devices that are introduced to the
organisation. This culture-centric
approach provides employees with
an element of choice and freedom
whilst allowing organisations to pre-
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