An Avanade survey finds that IT administrators and business executives are embracing the dual ideas of the consumerization of IT and BYOD. The resistance to these charges is a "myth."
The idea that IT professionals and
business leaders are resisting the consumerization of IT and the trend of bringing
your own device (BYOD) to work is myth. On the contrary, more and more people
are embracing these notions and trying to incorporate them into the workday,
according to a recent study.
Several recent reports have indicated
that organizations are still resisting consumerization of IT or are just
beginning to allow employees to use their personal devices at work. However,
that may not be the case, as most
organizations are embracing the trend and
have already figured out ways to incorporate it within the business, according
to a Jan. 25 study by Avanade.
Approximately 60 percent of companies
are adapting their IT infrastructure to accommodate employees' personal devices
instead of restricting how employees can use them, Avanade found. Nearly 90
percent of the business leaders said they are aware that employees are already
using personal technology for work purposes, and 65 percent of C-level executives
in the survey consider the growing use of employee-owned technology as a top
priority in their organization.
"Despite the notion that business
leaders are resisting the shift, we found that companies are investing in staff
and resources to enable the consumerization of IT and have many of the
resources that are needed today," said Tyson Hartman, Avanade's global
chief technology officer.
Avanade's findings directly contradict
a finding in a recent Cisco Systems study that found nearly half of the IT
managers and executives polled would
never let employees use their own devices for
work purposes.
"Progressive CIOs and IT organizations
have moved from gatekeepers of consumer technology to enablers of these
innovative devices, applications and services to meet employee needs and
demands," Hartman said.
Avanade's survey also found that 91
percent of C-level executives and 75 percent of IT leaders said their IT
department has the staff and resources needed to manage the growing number of
consumer devices within the organization. The survey reflected another finding
that contrasted other reports: 62 percent of IT executives and 84 percent in
the C-suite told Avanade that it is not too difficult to integrate
employee-owned devices, applications and online services with enterprise IT
systems.
In fact, 60 percent of the respondents
in the survey said they were already adapting their IT infrastructure to
accommodate these consumer technologies. On average, organizations are
allocating at least a quarter of their IT budgets to manage IT consumerization
efforts.
Companies view the consumerization
trend as a way to improve how people work, Hartman said. Allowing employees to
have access to enterprise resources from anywhere has translated into actual
productivity, the survey found. Over half of the C-level executives said the
ability for their employees to work from anywhere had the greatest impact on
the company. About 42 percent said employees were more willing to work after
hours.
Employees are using consumer devices to
access enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM),
enterprise resource planning (ERP), and time and expense tracking, Avanade
found.
That's not to say the respondents in
Avanade's survey didn't see any security risks with allowing personal devices.
Two-thirds of executives considered security as the main risk, while a little
over a third were concerned about unmanaged data. A little over half of the
respondents reported experiencing at least one security breach due to a
personal device. The breach is usually the result of a lost USB drive or
laptop, according to Avanade.
An earlier Cisco report found that many
companies feel that letting employees bring their own devices makes them
more
attractive as a prospective employer among younger workers. In contrast, only
20 percent of executives in Avanade's survey said allowing personal
technologies had any impact on recruitment and employee retention.
There have also been a lot of reports
about Apple devices, such as the
iPhone and iPad, paving the way for consumer
devices in the workplace. However, Avanade found that the most popular
consumer-owned devices being used in the enterprise are Android and BlackBerry
smartphones, as well as Apple laptops.
Avanade's global survey included 605
C-level executives, IT decision-makers and business unit leaders across 17
countries in North America, Europe, South America and Asia.
Email
Print
