Businesses play catchup as BYO tech takes off
By Esther Goh,
Research has revealed a major disconnect between what devices Kiwi employees say they use for work purposes and what employers think staff are, in fact, using.
The second annual Consumerisation of IT study suggests employees are bringing their own technology to work but that most of it is unofficial; workers consistently reported higher usage of tablets, iPhones and social media compared with bosses' perceptions – by up to two times in the case of iPads.
Half of smartphones and 44 percent of tablets used for business purposes were self-purchased, with the employee paying all usage charges.
New Zealand was one of nine countries surveyed for the report, conducted for Unisys for IDC, with responses from 200 workers and 25 IT department executives and managers.
Employers saw benefits in staff using their own technology, including cost-cutting, improved satisfaction and productivity, and freeing up hardware support, with nearly a quarter considering introducing a discount or stipend scheme to assist staff in purchasing their own devices.
But security concerns are a barrier for 87 percent of bosses, as are challenges in developing corporate policies (53 percent).
The longer they wait, however, the harder it will be to turn the trend to their advantage, warns Unisys New Zealand's managing director,
"By not taking quick action to proactively manage the growth of mobile technologies and social media in the workplace, many large organisations are letting change happen to them, rather than driving the use of consumer technology to their advantage,” said Brett Hodgson.
"The delay in action appears to be driven by a fear of perceived security risks and increased demand on IT resources compounded by no clear plan of what challenges to address first."
A key area of concern for large organisations is providing support for consumer technology, with 96 percent of employers saying they believe this would increase the workload on their IT department.
Most respondents said their companies had not yet implemented programmes to leverage these technologies due to limited resources and the scope of end-user demands.
Yet employers see the consumerisation trend as inevitable, with 88 percent saying they think tablets will become an integral part of the business.
“The real power of the consumerisation of IT is not just the mobile devices, but rather the opportunity they provide for IT organisations to develop, modernise and integrate applications that can be used to make data available to users regardless of time or location," Hodgson said.
"Making applications work with mobile devices makes these mobile devices real business tools and also helps the organisation improve the efficiency of existing business processes or even create whole new business models.”
Hodgson said consumer devices lent themselves to self-service support such as portals, wikis and chatrooms.
"In fact, New Zealand employers report that already almost a quarter of their employees would troubleshoot personal-device issues themselves rather than go to the IT department. Such a self-service approach could relieve some of the organisational stress that impedes acceptance of the consumerisation of IT.”
BRIDGING THE GAP
- * 8 percent of workers say they use iPads and other tablets for work, but employers say only 4 percent of their employees do so;
- * 14 percent of workers say they use iPhones for work purposes, yet employers say only 11 percent of their workers do so;
- * 37 percent of workers say they use social media for employee recruitment, while employers say only 24 percent of their employees do so;
- * 37 percent of workers say they use social media for employee communication, but employers say only 17 percent of their workers do so.
FUTURE THINKING
- * 59 percent say desktop systems are now their most critical business devices, but 42 percent say that will still be the case in 2012
- * 5 percent say smartphones are their most critical business device, but 10 percent say this will be true in 2012
- * No respondents said tablets are their most critical business device, but 7 percent expect this to be true in 2012
Comments
Simon Williams
I'm interested in how we as employers reimburse our employees for using their own devices. It is mentioned that this behaviour saves employers money, but is that fair? Why should we as business take advantage of our employees private purchases. They know that their private technology will make their work life easier, so they just use it, the business benefits but does the employee really benefit?
Does anyone have any models that relate to the pay back to employees for using their own laptops, tablets and smart phones? Everyone is talking about the behaviour but no one seems to be discussing the compensation………..
Paul Bell
Great article, I think the key driver is the usability of devices such as iPhones and iPads. There is definately a push from those employess involved in sales for IT teams to start considering the use of these mobile devices. As more business orientated apps are written I think we will see real growth in the use of iPads or tablets in business. Bespoke applications that streamline business processes have a greater chance of being adopted on such user friendly platforms. I believe that in some sales environments they could ultimately replace the laptop.
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