There is surely some general rule that states that the greatest grief gets management attention out of all proportion to the value of the GriefMakers. The converse of this rule is that hard cases make good law.
For CIOs, it is tempting to dismiss demands for freedom to choose devices of an employees’ own devising, as ‘a fashion too far’. Far easier to bolt things down, demand conformance and crack on without the distracting debate. Peripherals are, after all, peripheral – or would be if it were not for the potential risks when systems and processes are sloppy at the seams.
The first question to address when considering BYOD is about relevance.
Will this scale to a major issue and could it derail your plans for Desktop or Workspace Transformation?
Ask yourself just how many mobile field staff and senior executives really need or want to have the freedom to buy, use (and maintain) some kit of their own. In most organisations this may be a very small number.
The second question is one of employee motivation.
Is your design choice so very unattractive that it drives the need to work round the system?
Is the request linked to perceived status and/or a desire to make a fashion statement?
Do people just want a better way of getting the job done?
It may be difficult to understand the underlying motivations but if the standard tools are well designed then it may be worthwhile seeking some systems accommodation for the occasional non-conformist. They may not particularly relish the extra surveillance, activity tracking and authentication processes needed to safeguard critical systems and data – but with freedom comes responsibility.
The key is to not be distracted from the central task – ensuring that all your people are well served by their system interfaces, that the systems function responsively, that they easily can be adapted as business functions and processes evolve, and internal communications can reach across the silos that inevitably evolve and re-evolve in departmentalised organisations.
But how do you ensure all of the above? Join us for the Webinar: Desktop Transformation to find out: http://bit.ly/1FGjyf4
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