Nothing is as powerful as a successful BYOD program, but that power becomes toxic when BYOD is treated as a cosmetic fix.
I recently learned that botulinum toxin — quite often knows as Botox — is a lethal but naturally occurring substance. It’s probably the most toxic substances known, but if correctly applied has enormous therapeutic value — let alone its place within the cosmetic universe for you to hold back the ravages of time by wiping out wrinkles and frown lines.
All this got me thinking that BYOD is basically the identical for enterprise IT — it is a toxin, but person who can be utilized for good.
[You may say no to BYOD, but prepare in finding alternatives to satisfy your users’ needs. Read BYOD: Lessons On Negotiating Limits]
BYOD also is naturally occurring. From executives demanding iPad access, to sales managers sneaking inside the latest Android device — there is no stopping it. As such, its therapeutic value (increased productivity and value reduction) is obvious. Additionally it is well understood that, when sanctioned, BYOD could just be the panacea had to breathe life right into a wrinkled IT organization aged by outdated practices. So what is the catch, chances are you’ll ask — surely here’s good medicine we are able to all swallow? Well not necessarily, especially in case you are within the “cosmetic BYOD” management game.
Unfortunately, like its medicinal toxic brethren, BYOD is usually managed cosmetically — liberally applied as a handy guide a rough fix using a lot of tools to support an increasingly demanding and tech-savvy workforce. But as with every cosmetic remedy, the fix is frequently superficial, doesn’t last forever, and worse, still can result in some pretty severe and unintended consequences — a bit of like those celebrity plastic surgery disasters at the cover of gossip magazines.
So listed here are five tips for avoiding the perils of cosmetic BYOD while still “beautifying” your productivity.
BYOD uncomfortable side effects — Medical practitioners strongly advise against administering something as powerful as Botox in settings without professional supervision. A similar applies to BYOD, with IT and security professionals helping alleviate risks and protect business health from “shadowy” practices. Using our toxin analogy, this includes going through unintended effects and infections (security and risk exposures), nerve damage (telecom expense blowouts) or allergies (ill-prepared infrastructure).
Acceptable toxicity levels — BYOD projects fail miserably when IT departments enforce restrictive policies and controls. This is often partially because of shortcomings in management technologies that do not support the privacy concerns of employees who’re loathe to let IT anywhere near their personal apps and content.
Advances in mobile app and content management will needless to say help — as an example, containerizing an employee’s apps and information — but they need to also support enterprise requirements like geo-fencing secure locations or encrypting highly sensitive information.
IT pros also needs to expect the unexpected, building the size needed support the subsequent good toxin (like wearable tech). So in the event you think you understand the choice of devices and apps that need managing – quadruple it after which assess your capabilities.
Beauty inside the eye of the beholder — Employees from the CEO to a service desk analyst will measure the effectiveness of a BYOD program according to its ability to support the “me factor.” IT professionals must for sure build the ability to support personal preferences, but without the value burden of maintaining multiple tools. Also critical often is the speed and agility had to support the easy things in business all of us take without any consideration like providing secure content management and email. Remember, if you cannot provide ubiquitous, usable, and secure functions, employees won’t blame their device, they’ll blame IT after which work around it.
Age goes with beauty — The lovely retina display of the iPad Air, or the processing power of the Samsung Galaxy S4, means nothing if they’re office paperweights. This implies IT departments should consider including the price of integrating back-office systems and applications into any BYOD initiatives.
One CIO i do know did just this. Stressed to initiate a BYOD program, he realized that success trusted re-architecting legacy back-end systems to support a mobile workforce. As such, he determined a correct cost of the work over a 3-year period and factored this into his business case and budget plans.
What made this compelling for the business wasn’t just employee device support, but additionally the productivity gains realized when mobile sales teams could securely hook up with systems on the head office and avoid the mistake-prone double handling of knowledge. Additionally, quantifiable business metrics like sales order processing time are getting used to gauge BYOD success — which when combined with intangibles like employee satisfaction is an actual win-win.
Another commonsense approach is for IT to construct mobile support into its own legacy service management tools, especially the service desk. This not just improves support, but demonstrates to mobile-savvy employees that it’s leading the BYOD charge.
Time waits for not anyone — The old saying that today’s IT project is tomorrow’s maintenance legacy applies equally to BYOD management. As BYOD takes hold, business unit managers will demand faster delivery of mobile apps, or access to new cloud services which are better engineered to support mobile.
Therefore, IT leaders must constantly review application delivery practices, security policies, and integration and infrastructure enhancements had to ensure BYOD doesn’t wither and die at the proverbial vine.
BYOD is occurring, whether IT likes it or not. Successful programs balance the wishes of employees with robust yet non-intrusive management features.
As your BYOD journey continues let the great toxin flow, but always ensure real business benefits are usually not compromised by cosmetic quick fixes.
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Peter Waterhouse is a senior technical marketing advisor for CA Technologies’ strategic alliance, service providers, cloud, and industry solutions businesses. View Full Bio
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