In keeping in tune with our theme of Voice/Mobility Tuesday, we heard yesterday that Dell Quest Software announced the results of a global survey of IT executives to gauge the level of organizational maturity with existing BYOD strategies, along with realized and anticipated benefits and problems. The findings conclude that approximately 70% of companies believe BYOD can improve their work processes and help them work better in the future, while an estimated 59% believe they would be at a competitive disadvantage without BYOD.
Dell surveyed nearly 1,500 IT decision makers across the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Singapore, India, and the Beijing region; the organizations surveyed said they are optimistic about the potential corporate gains of BYOD, reporting they would be at a competitive disadvantage without it. Some of the key findings include:
· An estimated three quarters of those polled stated that BYOD can only deliver massive benefits if the specific needs and rights of each user are understood; while only an estimated 17% of organizations encourage BYOD and who actively manage any device employees wish to use — showing they really understand the need to empower employees.
· On average, survey respondents identified four personal gains for their employees, including more flexible working hours, along with the ability to foster creativity, speed innovation, and facilitate teamwork/collaboration.
Survey results also revealed that companies with mature BYOD programs are most likely to achieve the most benefits; interestingly, Beijing was the most optimistic in reporting potential gains. Additional findings revealed other useful and constructive information related to BYOD, such as:
· Organizations that consider applications part of a robust BYOD strategy are more likely to link and manage devices per user, clearly define roles for their user community in one central database, track and support each user’s level of mobility, and deliver applications to users based on their role within the company.
· A user-centric strategy can have a significant and positive impact reaping rewards for companies in data management and security, as well as employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Approximately 74% experienced improved employee productivity while an estimated 70% saw faster customer response times.
· Companies who embraced BYOD programs experienced improved employee productivity, faster customer response times and improved operational efficiencies.
· Companies with well-established BYOD policies are the least likely to experience any kind of setbacks, with over a quarter of this group experiencing none at all.
· Over half of respondents state that BYOD has completely changed their IT culture (approximately 56%) and/or business culture (approximately 54%) in their organization.
“In my previous role as CIO of Quest Software, our IT empowered nearly 4,000 employees across 60 offices in 23 countries to use their preferred mobile devices whether they were phones, tablets, or non-standard laptops to do their jobs,” said Carol Fawcett, CIO, Dell Software Group. “Instead of worrying about their devices, we focused on enabling access to the apps and data needed by the appropriate individuals regardless of device. We found this approach allowed us to be much more strategic and enabled us to focus on our biggest BYOD problems: security, access rights and data leakage. The results of this latest BYOD survey reinforce the importance of putting users first in order to develop the most effective policies and turn BYOD into a long-term, sustainable business benefit.”
