Growing number of companies supporting BYOD, according to survey

Mobile software provider Good Technology said its survey of 100 of its customers had revealed that 76% of firms regulate the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach, whilst a further 13% said they would follow suit before the end of 2013. Three-quarters of the firms that support BYOD have at least 2,000 employees, it said, whilst financial services, insurance and healthcare businesses are "among the most active industries supporting BYOD", demonstrating that the adopting of BYOD is "not hindered by regulatory compliance or security concerns".

"Over the last year BYOD has undoubtedly gained traction in the enterprise," Good Technology said in a report (9-page / 3.42MB PDF) charting the results of its survey. "The number of companies that had previously stated they had 'no plans' to support BYOD has markedly declined and corporate BYOD deployments has not only grown in sheer number but also increased from a US-only model to become more global in scale, as many large multi-national or foreign-based customers join in support for the trend."

"Even highly-regulated industries that have stringent security concerns and compliance measures to follow are freely embracing BYOD programs," it added.

Good Technology said that half the number of companies it had surveyed that had told it they had BYOD policies in place had said they do not pick up any of the associated costs, such as paying for devices or contributing towards the cost of employee bills.

However, IT contracts and technology law specialist David Isaac of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, warned that businesses must be aware of potential "hidden risks" associated with backing a BYOD approach.

"The headlines seem to focus on data security, intellectual property ownership and privacy whenever the issue of BYOD adoption is raised," Isaac said. "But for businesses, an equally important concern may be to identify any hidden risks which may result from placing the capital cost of the device and ongoing data plan charges on employees, including reputational ones. BYOD also creates added complexity for IT support service providers as they must factor into their service propositions both devices they are not familiar with and locations they have not agreed to."

"On the issue of IP ownership, businesses that operate across borders need to take care to ensure that they have made allowance for the fact that ownership rules have not been harmonised across the EU," the expert added. "It is not a given that employee-created IP will transfer automatically to an employer and what is considered within an employee’s scope of employment, often a relevant factor to determining ownership, may differ for different sections of a workforce depending on their location."

"Accordingly, before agreeing to a BYOD policy, an organisation should want to ensure that it has carried out a thorough due diligence of the policy’s legal implications," Isaac said.

Good Technology said that nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents to its survey said they offered a "stipend" - a form of payment - to employees to encourage them to use their own devices for work tasks, whilst 19% of respondents said they allowed employees to claim back mobile service cost expenses incurred. It said that in almost all cases there was a limit to the maximum amount employees could claim in their expenses and that the claims required "prior management approval".

The mobile software provider said that the main reasons why businesses had chosen not to support BYOD was because of their HR or legal policies or IT service and security concerns.

"There is no doubt that the use of personal devices in the enterprise is here to stay and employees will continue to take advantage of employer’s BYOD programs to use the devices they prefer to get their jobs done in faster and more collaborative ways," Good Technology said. "Thus, organizations that are looking to increase the workforce productivity should embrace and offer support for employees’ preferences for devices and apps. As they do so, it will be important for them to address the security of information being accessed by these devices, as well as the HR/Legal, cost structure and IT support ramifications of such programs."