CASE STUDY
Just about everyone who has a smartphone wants to be able to bring it to work and use it on the job. And why not? Employees using their
own smartphones would allow companies
to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money to purchase
these devices. Smaller companies are able to go
mobile without making large investments in devices
and mobile services. One IBM-sponsored study by
Forrester Consulting found that a BYOD program
using mobile enterprise services from IBM achieved a
108 percent return on investment and payback within
one month. “Anywhere/anytime” access to computing tools increased workplace productivity and raised
effective employee work time by 45–60 minutes per
week. According to Gartner Inc., by 2017, 50 percent
of employers will require employees to supply their
own mobile devices for the workplace. BYOD is
becoming the “new normal.”
But…wait a minute. Nearly three out of five
enterprises believe that BYOD represents a growing problem for their organizations, according to a
survey of 162 enterprises conducted by Osterman
Research on behalf of Dell Inc. Although BYOD can
improve employee job satisfaction and productivity,
it also can cause a number of problems if not managed properly: support for personally owned devices
is more difficult than it is for company-supplied
devices, the cost of managing mobile devices can
increase, and protecting corporate data and networks becomes more difficult. Research conducted
by the Aberdeen Group found that on average, an
enterprise with 1,000 mobile devices spends an extra
$170,000 per year when it allows BYOD. So it’s not
that simple.
BYOD requires a significant portion of corporate
IT resources dedicated to managing and maintaining a large number of devices within the organization. In the past, companies tried to limit business
smartphone use to a single platform. This made it
easier to keep track of each mobile device and to roll
out software upgrades or fixes, because all employees were using the same devices, or at the very
least, the same operating system. The most popular
employer-issued smartphone used to be Research in
Motion’s BlackBerry, because it was considered the
“most secure” mobile platform available. (BlackBerry
mobile devices access corporate e-mail and data
using a proprietary software and networking
platform that is company-controlled and protected
from outsiders.)
Today, the mobile digital landscape is much
more complicated, with a variety of devices and
operating systems on the market that do not have
well-developed tools for administration and security. Android has over 79 percent of the worldwide
smartphone market, but it is more difficult to use
for corporate work than Apple mobile devices using
the iOS operating system. IOS is considered a closed
system and runs only on a limited number of different Apple mobile devices. In contrast, Android’s
fragmentation makes it more difficult and costly
for corporate IT to manage. As of July 2013, there
were at least 11,868 different Android-based devices
were available from more than 1,700 different
brands, according to a report by OpenSignal, which
researches wireless networks and devices. Android’s
huge consumer market share attracts many hackers.
Android is also vulnerable because it has an opensource architectureand comes in multiple versions.
If employees are allowed to work with more than
one type of mobile device and operating system,
companies need an effective way to keep track of
all the devices employees are using. To access company information, the company’s networks must be
configured to receive connections from that device.
When employees make changes to their personal
phone, such as switching cellular carriers, changing
their phone number, or buying a new mobile device
altogether, companies will need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to
remain productive. Firms need an efficient inventory management system that keeps track of which
devices employees are using, where the device is
located, whether it is being used, and what software
it is equipped with. For unprepared companies,
keeping track of who gets access to what data could
be a nightmare.
With the large variety of phones and operating
systems available, providing adequate technical
support for every employee could be difficult. When
employees are not able to access critical data or
encounter other problems with their mobile devices,
they will need assistance from the information
systems department. Companies that rely on desktop
computers tend to have many of the same computers
Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 209with the same specs and operating systems, making
tech support that much easier. Mobility introduces a
new layer of variety and complexity to tech support
that companies need to be prepared to handle.
There are significant concerns with securing
company information accessed with mobile devices.
If a device is stolen or compromised, companies
need ways to ensure that sensitive or confidential
information isn’t freely available to anyone. Mobility
puts assets and data at greater risk than if they were
only located within company walls and on company
machines. Companies often use technologies that
allow them to wipe data from devices remotely, or
encrypt data so that if it is stolen, it cannot be used.
You’ll find a detailed discussion of mobile security
issues in Chapter 8.
IBM’s CIO Jeanette Horan believes that BYOD
may cause as many problems as it solves. BYOD was
not saving IBM any money and had actually created
new challenges for the IT department because
employees’ devices are full of software that IBM
doesn’t control. IBM provides secure BlackBerrys
for about 40,000 of its 400,000 workers while
allowing 80,000 more employees to use their own
smartphones or tablets to access IBM networks.
The IBM IT department found it had no grasp of
which apps and services employees were using on
their personal devices, and employees themselves
were “blissfully unaware” of the security risks posed
by popular apps. IBM decided to ban the use of
such popular services as the Dropbox cloud-based
cyberlocker, fearing that employees would put IBMsensitive information in their personal Dropbox
accounts, forward internal email to public Web mail
services, or use their smartphones as mobile Wi-Fi
hotspots. According to research by the International
Data Company (IDC), 20 percent of corporate
employees using personal cloud storage services
admitted to using them to store enterprise data, so
this is becoming a serious problem.
IBM will not allow an employee to access its
corporate networks with his or her personal device
unless it secures the device. The IT department
configures the device so that its memory can
be erased remotely if it is lost or stolen. The IT
group also disables public file-transfer programs
like Apple’s iCloud; instead, employees use an
IBM-hosted version called MyMobileHub. IBM even
turns off Siri, the voice-activated personal assistant,
on employees’ iPhones because the spoken queries
are uploaded to Apple servers.
Each employee’s device is treated differently,
depending on the model and the job responsibilities
of the person using it. Some people are only allowed
to receive IBM e-mail, calendars, and contacts on
their portable devices, while others can access
internal IBM applications and files (see Chapter 8).
IBM equips the mobile devices of the latter category
of employees with additional software, such as
programs that encrypt information as it travels to
and from corporate networks.
One company that has successfully implemented
BYOD is Intel Corporation, the giant semiconductor
company. About 70 percent of the 39,000 devices
registered on its network are personal devices. Intel
approached in BYOD in a positive manner, trying
to find ways to make it work rather than to defeat
it. Diane Bryant, then Intel’s CIO, didn’t want to be
dependent on a single mobile vendor or device.
Intel hammered out a BYOD strategy and created
an end-user service-level agreement that clarified
that end users were voluntarily using BYOD rather
than being mandated by Intel. The company developed different policies, rules, and access limits
for each type of device-smartphone, tablet, or laptop—with multiple levels of controls in place. Intel
maintains a list of approved devices. If a device
does not meet its requirements, it is blocked from
the network. Intel’s BYOD program today offers 40
proprietary applications, including travel tools to
help schedule a flight and conference room finders.
The company has an internal “app store” and uses
a variety of software and security tools, including
mobile device management (MDM) software and
mobile app management (MAM) software.
Intel’s goal for BYOD is not to save money but
to make employees happier and more productive. Employees like being able to use their own
device and apps alongside specialized Intel apps.
On average, Intel workers report that bringing
their own devices saves them about 57 minutes per
day, which amounts to 5 million hours annually
company-wide.
Canadian Tire decided not to allow BYOD at all
and issued new BlackBarry Q10 and Z10 smartphones to its 3,000 corporate employees. (Canadian
Tire is one of Canada’s largest companies, with an
online e-commerce store and 1,200 retail outlets selling automotive, sports, leisure, home products, and
apparel; petroleum outlets; and financial services.)
The company felt that for its purposes, the bringyour-own-device model was not sufficiently secure.
Canadian Tire’s chief technology officer (CTO)
Eugene Roman worries that an email could sent
a virus into the company’s core infrastructure. At
present, Canadian Tire’s management thinks BYOD
210 Part Two Information Technology Infrastructureis interesting but is not yet ready for the company’s
mainstream business applications.
In order to successfully deploy mobile devices,
companies need to carefully examine their business
processes and determine whether or not mobility
makes sense for them. Not every firm will benefit
from mobility to the same degree. Without a clear
idea of how exactly mobile devices fit into the long
term plans for the firm, companies will end up
wasting their money on unnecessary devices and
programs.
Sources: Dennis McCafferty, “Surprising Facts About Mobility
and BYOD,” Baseline, January 29, 2014; Beatrice Piquer-Durand,
“BYOD and BYOA: Dangers and Complications,” Techradar Pro,
March 24, 2014; Tam Harbert, “Android Invades the Enterprise,”
Computerworld BYOD Consumerization of IT,” November
2013; Forrester Consulting, “The Total Economic Impact of IBM
Managed Mobility for BYOD,” May 2013; Fred Donovan, “The
Growing BYOD Problem,” FierceMobileIT, February 13, 2013; Brian
Bergstein, “IBM Faces the Perils of ‘Bring Your Own Device’,”
MIT Technology Review, May 21, 2013; and Matt Hamblen,
“Canadian Tire forgoes BYOD, Issues BlackBerries to Workers,”
Computerworld, May 20, 2013.
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
5-14 What are the advantages and disadvantages of
allowing employees to use their personal
smartphones for work?
5-15 What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding
whether to allow employees to use their
personal smartphones for work?
5-16 Compare the BYOD experiences of IBM and
Intel. Why did BYOD at Intel work so well?
5-17 Allowing employees use their own smartphones for work will save the company
money. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Chapter 5 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies 211
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