FEATURE: BYOD
we deliver through partners, and we train our partners to do
the professional services. We do not have professional services
people and everything we offer as a solution or product will be
sold, implemented, maintained, and operated by our partners.
Since we do everything with and through the partner, the
opportunity we have is the same opportunity that the channel
partner has,” AlHaj-Issa stresses.
However, one of the limitations of the digital workplace
is the interruptions to network connectivity through brick
and concrete laden walls, typical in GCC countries. “Open
workspace space is better for a digital workplace for modern
organisations and the adoption is happening with the
younger generation,” says AlHaj-Issa.
Middle East organisations need to enable mobile workforces
for enhancing employee collaboration and productivity, to
meet the needs of the always-on digital economy. Mobile
devices are also increasingly integrated into IoT deployments
and the rise in wearables. One recent industry study indicated
that global BYOD and enterprise mobility market will more
than double to $73 billion by 2021.
Smartphones are changing the ways that Middle East
organisations interact with employees, partners, and
customers, especially in a region that has amongst the highest
smartphone penetration and usage in the world. According to
a recent survey by 451 Research commissioned by SAP, since
2012 mobile has become the preferred channel for customer
service, rapidly overtaking home phones and email.
“When it comes to deploying mobile applications, Middle East
organisations should prioritise, empathising with the needs of
both seasoned employees and tech-savvy Millennials. Middle
East enterprises should deploy mobile applications that can
analyse data and allow employees to work on the go, so
employees can find the right information at the right time, at
the convenience of their fingertips,” says SAP’s Maya.
Organisations should work closely with specialised mobility
channel partners in the Middle East to form enterprise
mobility management digital strategies. Chief Digital
Officers who can break down internal barriers and bring a
technological perspective to the boardroom are vital for
driving this digital transformation.
Implementing a BYOD programme,
the VMware way
Bring Your Own Device is a growing trend where employees
use personal mobile devices, such as smartphones and
tablets, for business and personal purposes. The increased
proliferation of mobile devices in enterprises, where
employees choose their preferred device for business and
work purposes so they can be productive from anywhere,
anytime, had led to an increased adoption of BYOD
programs in companies of all sizes.
Although BYOD can significantly help organisations
to reduce costs, it could prove to be very costly if the
programme is not securely implemented, as mobile
applications can contain sensitive corporate information.
Implementing a BYOD programme involves stakeholders
from information technology, legal, human resources, and
executive management to ensure that the programme
complies with enterprise security, compliance, regional,
local and labour laws. VMware AirWatch exceeds
the technical requirements in implementing a BYOD
programme to ensure security of enterprise data and
privacy of personal data. Most enterprises consider the
following when building a BYOD programme:
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Separation of business and personal data
Corporate-authorised applications
Application level security and DLP
Data security and retention
Compliance detection and remote wipe
Device ownership
Network security
Geo-management
Authentication and authorisation
OS patch and software vulnerability management
Automated Remediation
“For Middle East organisations, mobile-led digital
transformation faces a number of challenges, including a
complex technology landscape, and organisations frequently
focused on providing mobile devices instead of developing a
culture of mobility enterprise-wide,” continues Maya. “BYOD strategies should not be done in isolation, and will
require Middle East organisations to invest in re-architecting
their network infrastructure to enable the next generation of
BYOD in the mobile cloud era. Channel partners should play
a key role in enabling BYOD for organisations across all sizes
and industry verticals. End-users should choose their channel
partners based on their breadth and depth of experience,
whether in BYOD solutions or specific industry verticals,”
explains VMware’s Al Omari.
Middle East leaders should focus on mobile solutions and
beyond rather than the web, transform workplaces to
welcome video chats, messaging, and cloud-based tools,
meet the mobile culture of Millennials and Generation-Z,
and create a healthy mobile workplace with healthful mobile
work engagement. Al Omari also points out that small and medium-sized
enterprises, which comprise the majority of organisations in
the Middle East, face the biggest challenges in enabling BYOD.
“While they have more agile IT infrastructure, they often lack
the long-term enterprise mobility management strategies that
large enterprises can more easily deploy,” he says. n
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