What BYOD and CYOD mean for workplace transformation

Digital transformation is one of those phrases that fits in nicely on annual reports. It makes a company look modern, equipped for change and ready to reinvent itself to tackle challenging business situations.

It’s a phrase that can be misused however. Companies can make minor adjustments to the technology, revamp the website, buy new software but the overall way of working remains the same. Companies must go much further than this.

A genuine transformation needs a correspondingly genuine shift in business attitudes: this is not a question of a server room upgrade or some new software purchases, it’s about altering the way that an organisation operates, a transformation of the entire business culture.

We’re used to seeing a re-organisation of the way that companies capture, manage and process digital information. The ubiquity of the mobile phone has shifted the office environment in so many ways – not least in the sense that employees are no longer tied to the office.

1 What BYOD and CYOD mean for workplace transformation

IDG 2018 Digital Transformation Survey Respondents

IDG’s 2018 Digital Transformation Survey was created to investigate digital transformation and the journey that a company undergoes to apply new technologies and processes to its business.

The survey was carried out between March and April 2018 and gathered 100 respondents from IT decision makers working at companies with 250 or more employees.

Approximately 31% of respondents said they were IT Professionals, 27% were Heads of IT, 22% were IT directors and 20% were from the C-Suite. These professionals came from a wide array of industries, with education (15%), IT (11%) and finance (8%) the most represented in the survey.

2 What BYOD and CYOD mean for workplace transformation

Work devices are changing

The 2018 IDG Insight Digital Transformation Survey, however, has revealed that many organisations are reluctant to offer employees a choice of platform to work on. Nearly a fifth of businesses (17%) adopt this hard-line approach and when it comes to smartphones and tablets, the choice is even more restrictive: 32% don’t offer a choice of smartphone and 24% of employers don’t offer a choice of tablet.

This approach could make it harder to attract younger people, especially when 74% of 20-35-year-old workers expect to have a choice in work device, with this falling slightly to 63% for the 35-50-year old bracket and 51% for those aged 50 and over.

3 What BYOD and CYOD mean for workplace transformation

Do your employees in the following age groups within your organisation expect to have a choice about how, on what sort of device, they work?

20-35 35-50 50+

Yes

No

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

74%

63%

51% 49%

37%26%

In short, the company that chooses not to provide any sort of choice may find the talent pool of potential employees shrinking, as well as finding it harder to retain its workers. At the same time, this choice does present challenges for IT teams

and that even extends to corporate-commissioned devices, especially with the IDG survey finding that 81% of respondents aged between 20 and 35 expect to use their work devices for non-business purposes.

Work devices are changing

When work devices like phones and tablets are also used for personal access, there are security issues to deal with. Apple solves this issue by adopting a blended approach to personal and corporate data, deploying them on the same device - this avoids setting up siloes of data. With devices working securely, straight out of the box, there are few concerns deploying them in a work environment.

Furthermore, it’s clear here that organisations feel more comfortable with the security of work devices when they are corporately provisioned, rather than owned by the individual. In particular, Bring Your Own Device

(BYOD) policies have caused some concern in recent years with a TechPro Research report1 indicating that 37% of respondents would not implement BYOD because of the security concerns mentioned above.

These security concerns persist today, not only owing to the increasing number of security breaches across industry but also owing to the costs involved and the levels of support that are needed. The 2018 IDG Insight Digital Transformation Survey identifies security as a major concern, with 83% of respondents highlighting it as a problem, just pipping cost at 79%.

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1 https://www.zdnet.com/article/research-74-percent-using-or-adopting-byod/

Do employees in the following age groups tend to expect to use work devices personally as well as for business?

20-35 35-50 50+

Yes

No

90%

68%

45%

23%

0%

81%

69%

53%47%

31%

19%

Apple performs well here, its security features making it attractive. What’s more, as Apple products have a longer life and offer greater performance, so the TCO may be

relatively low, which provides the added advantage of high residual value for Apple products in the second-hand market, meaning value for money even after three years.

Work devices are changing

Security, cost and mobile device management are the most important factors in managing employee devices.

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Cost Security Complience MobileDevice

Management

Ease of Deployment

Support

90%

68%

45%

23%

0%

79%83%

35%

51% 51%52%

The rise of CYOD

This concern has prompted the introduction of a halfway house between the BYOD model and a free-for-all. A Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) scheme, where employees choose from a list of devices, offers a perfect solution for companies that want to provide choice but retain an element of control. It also allows employees to ‘top up’ with their own money if they want a better spec, which not only appeases employees but also – as illustrated by the research above – satisfies finance directors who may be resistant to the idea of opting for the latest, top-of-the-line models when older devices would do equally well.

What this also does is improve security levels: companies can implement a secure platform and base their choices around that. For example, by using iOS as the main operating system, companies will be supporting those users who want Apple devices – and it’s clear that there are many people who fit this description, with Apple’s iPhone and iPad the most popular smartphone and tablet respectively.

Indeed, according to The 2018 IDG Insight Digital Transformation Survey, 65% of employees would opt for Apple’s iPhone given the choice, with this rising to 72% for the iPad.

Another issue is the choice of different operating systems and different vendors’ models, all of which have their own ways of working. But here again, employers can ensure that security needs come first. There may be a choice of different operating systems, but the trick is to ensure that the options being offered are secure. The vast majority of iOS devices at 81%2(as of 9/18/2018) are using the latest version of iOS, with

up-to-date security patches, far ahead of the industry norm. As a consequence of this, it’s likely that, given that the vast majority of employees who choose mobile devices opt for Apple models, this may eventually have an impact on the choice of PC too. Given the preference for Apple products from consumers, it’s likely that Macs will be having more of an impact in the office environment in future.

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2 https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/

What is the most popular type of Smartphone chosen by employees?

iPhone Android Windows

70%

53%

35%

18%

0%

65%

30%

5%

Get ready for workplace transformation

There’s little doubt that as far as the future is concerned, this type of transformation is going to be the way forward for the future. A glance at the IDG Insight survey reveals how this way of working is seen as crucial for the younger generation, when 74% of respondents aged between 21 and 35 expect to have a choice of platforms to work on, compared with 51% of 50+ employees, there’s a clear sign of the way the wind is blowing (and with smartphone ownership among teenagers reportedly more than 90%, it’s almost certain that the figure for younger employees is higher than 74%).Firms are on a demographic losing

battle here: a slump in birth-rate around the turn of the century means that there will be a shortfall of young people entering in the job market in the next couple of years. This means that companies will have to work harder to recruit talented staff. Organisations that are innovative and flexible in their approach to IT devices will consequently be attractive to the best young employees. As one of the survey respondents says: “happy employees work effectively and give their best.”

There’s also the relationship to the client – they too appreciate the flexibility. As one manager put it:

“Happy employees work effectively and give their best.”

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“We must be flexible around our clients’ needs and our people’s needs.”There’s another element to this too. There’s a growing loosening of the bonds between what’s classed as work and what’s classed as leisure. In a world where working from home – or on the move – becomes the norm, what do work hours mean? One of the reasons given for home working is that employees can achieve a better work/life balance, to allow for childcare, for example. But this does mean that employees need to be contacted outside work hours, even if a potential

issue is not dealt with right away.This loosening of the division between home and work can also be seen in the prevalence of business apps. The Apple implementation of its App Store has radically changed the thinking on software. The growing replacement of long-standing business software by apps has probably been the biggest sign of business transformation yet – it’s a process that’s certainly set to continue. More companies are choosing to develop their own apps to solve particular business needs and most are standardising on iOS.

Get ready for workplace transformation

Apps “make work more like consumer behaviour”and “offer easier access to cloud-based products”

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It shows that the transformation of apps from consumer software to business is set to continue. It’s an approach that’s paying dividends with employees: The 2018 IDG Insight Digital Transformation Survey recorded such comments as apps “make work more like consumer behaviour” and “offer easier access to cloud-based products”.

The key is therefore to implement the changes in technology and business practices hand in hand, true business transformation is about more than just technology, it’s a change in mindset. Although it looks like the young won’t let businesses forget this.