Cass sees increased BYOD adoption in 2016, bolstered by more robust management platforms
Editor’s Note: With 2016 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
Cass recently completed its 2015 “Bring Your Own Device Mobility Study” based on a survey of more than 200 IT leaders from over 175 enterprises. The results: The BYOD movement is as healthy as ever.
In the 2015 survey, 85% of respondents indicated BYOD was incorporated into their organization’s current telecom offering. Additionally, 42% of respondents described their BYOD programs as “well established” within their organizations, while that number was just 25% in a similar study conducted by Cass one year ago.
The survey revealed a significant increase in organizations that pay stipends, which we believe is due, in part, to the California appellate court decision, Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service. (The ruling requires employers to reimburse employees if they require them to use their personally owned devices for work.) In 2014, less than half of the companies Cass surveyed offered BYOD reimbursements, while this year, 57% of the respondents say they pay BYOD stipends, to all or to a percentage of their BYOD users.
In 2016, it’s highly likely other court cases will be heard on this topic and some additional states may take action. Large employers will not want a “patchwork” of policies regarding stipends dependent upon state-by-state laws, so we predict that the number of companies offering stipends will soar to 80% by the end of 2016. Most importantly, employers will see the value of stipends – as both a carrot and a stick in BYOD compliance. Stipends can be discontinued by the employer if the employee does not adhere to corporate mobility policies, for example, by using a phone without encryption.
Another interesting finding from the 2015 survey was more than half of the respondents wanted to improve their ability to manage their BYOD environment. As BYOD grows, this desire for better management of BYOD will only increase.
We predict 2016 will be known as “the year of BYOD management.” This prediction is based on more than the numbers from the survey; it’s based on three factors that have, more than anything else, helped BYOD flourish: consumer demand, improvements in technology that secure personal devices and cost savings.
Employees get what they want
Consumers – in this case, employees – are driving BYOD. Smartphone usage continues to increase. A recent study from Pew Research Center found nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone and 46% of the respondents indicated that they “couldn’t live without” their phone.
The idea of two phones, though, is not nearly as popular. In a separate study, nearly two-thirds of respondents in the U.S. indicated an aversion to carrying two separate devices. That same study revealed more than 90% of Americans use their own mobile device outside of office hours to conduct work-related tasks. BYOD, it would seem, is a natural response to employee preference and user experience.
More secure than ever
BYOD will continue to expand, in part, because today’s more comprehensive and robust mobile device management and network access control solutions offer greater peace of mind to the enterprise. These platforms help ensure secure access to email and other corporate applications.
MDM solutions enable device wiping in the event a device is stolen, lost or out of compliance. And, now that content can be containerized, employees no longer need to fear that if they are terminated or report a device missing, their employer will “wipe away” the entire contents of a device, including non-corporate data like photographs and personal emails. MDM also provides security measures such as encryption, authentication and virus protection – measures that make corporations feel comfortable when 10,000 remote employees are accessing corporate data.
Savings do exist
Some naysayers claim savings are overblown. However, BYOD programs can save the enterprise money by reducing the number of corporate-owned devices, offsetting telecom spend and refocusing IT staff on core competencies. Like everything else, though, the savings depends on the size of the organization. If your organization’s telecom structure is comprised of 10,000 corporate-owned devices and you migrate 9,000 of those into a BYOD program, it’s very likely the savings would be large. While there are still costs involved with an employee-owned device, such as MDM software and perhaps reimbursement costs to partially offset employees’ mobile device expenses, the employer’s total BYOD costs are typically less than companies incur with corporate-owned devices.
On the other hand, if a company has very few corporate-owned devices and its BYOD goals are to increase productivity and better empower a mobile workforce, there is less likelihood the program will reduce the company’s telecom spend. After all, if the company starts with just a few hundred corporate-owned devices and adds or replaces them with a few thousand employee-owned devices, costs are going to increase even if BYOD reimbursement costs aren’t part of the implementation.
Numbers don’t lie
Although there are a fair share of BYOD detractors, those people seem to be ignoring the actual reports coming from the enterprise. And they seem to be forgetting the reasons BYOD became so popular in the first place. Perhaps they’ll get on board by the end of 2016 – when we predict the Cass study will reveal 70% of companies have a well-established BYOD program.
As VP of sales and marketing for the Expense Management Division of Cass Information Systems, Josh Bouk leads the global growth strategy of the managed services provider, which includes responsibility for the division’s channel and direct sales, marketing and strategic partnerships. With nearly 20 years of strategy and management experience building services companies in sectors including telecom, energy and high tech, Bouk leverages a broad background to help Cass expand its leadership as the only holistic solution for BYOD, enterprise mobility and fixed communications management.
