CIOs in Asia-Pacific embracing BYOD trend

AUSTRALIA: Ovum’s recent report revealed that “bring you own device” (BYOD) is becoming very popular among MNCs in Asia-Pacific. Over 70 percent of the surveyed companies already have policies to support approved employee-owned devices. Despite the large number of MNCs embracing this trend, however, support is initially limited to certain areas and roles within the organization.

Claudio Castelli, Ovum senior analyst, Enterprise Telecoms, says: "The growing acceptance of the BYOD trend by IT departments, and the greater need to mobilize data applications and support a broader range of mobile devices, mean that CIOs are struggling to define their enterprise mobility strategy. This is even more challenging for MNCs in Asia-Pacific, which have to cope with the various aspects of mobility across a region that is extremely fragmented in terms of service availability, network quality, workplace practices, culture, and regulatory environment."

Many companies’ IT departments frequently do not have the ability or resources to meet the associated challenge in-house, and are therefore considering providers’ help. Managed mobility services offer an attractive approach to the issue, and are increasingly popular. Providers see this as a unique opportunity, and are launching a growing number of solutions and services to support BYOD policies.

Over 60 percent of respondents identified the reduced cost to the company in terms of purchasing hardware as a major benefit of managing employee-owned mobile devices. Many mobile device management (MDM) providers cite innovation as another key benefit of supporting BYOD, but most CIOs remain skeptical of this. Less than a third of IT decision-makers believe innovation is an important benefit of managing employee-owned devices.

“The BYOD trend is driven primarily by employees’ desire to use their consumer mobile devices of choice at work. Although CIOs recognize that employee satisfaction and retention are important benefits of BYOD, they are pragmatic, and are building the business cases around cost savings rather than productivity gains,” concludes Castelli.