If you had to guess which country has taken the lead with the Bring Your Own Device trend; who would you say it is?
Well, if you guessed Singapore; you’d be correct. According to a study conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne (sponsored by Dell Computer) Singapore leads the list in putting users first, followed by U.K., Australia, France and Italy. Do you want to guess who came in last place? The U.S. ranked lowest on the list of 10 countries surveyed.
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Vanson Bourne interviewed 1,485 IT chiefs from these select countries. No one from Canada was surveyed and the research firm only interviewed enterprise-sized organizations.
If they did they might have found similar results to the U.S. For example, David MacDonald, CEO of leading solution provider Softchoice told CDN late last year that he hasn’t seen any major BYOD deployments. “BYOD is talked about a lot but I have not run into any company that has a full BYOD policy. Cost is an issue, but over time they will figure out how to reduce that premium. What we are going to see is companies adopting from a broad spectrum to accommodate any device,” MacDonald said.
The results from the Vanson Bourne study prove MacDonald’s theory somewhat. The survey found that as BYOD strategies mature and companies move beyond just managing devices to focus on users and applications, they reap bigger rewards and experience fewer setbacks.
The research firm made the conclusion that approximately 70 per cent of companies believe BYOD can improve their work processes and help them work better in the future, while an estimated 59 per cent believe they would be at a competitive disadvantage without BYOD.
An estimated three quarters of those polled stated that BYOD can only deliver massive benefits if the specific needs and rights of each user are understood; while only an estimated 17 per cent of organizations encourage BYOD and who actively manage any device employees wish to use – showing they really understand the need to empower employees.
On average, survey respondents identified four personal gains for their employees, including more flexible working hours, along with the ability to foster creativity, speed innovation, and facilitate teamwork/collaboration.
Roger Bjork, director, Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Dell Software Group, said of the results that the company is seeing dramatic changes in the way users interact with technology on their personal devices and the critical role BYOD plays in transforming business and IT culture.
“This global survey confirms what we have long suspected-companies that embrace a user-focused approach to BYOD may reap the biggest rewards, face the fewest obstacles and deliver real and immediate value in terms of greater efficiency, productivity and competitive advantage. Those slow to support BYOD or constrained by a device-centric approach may deal with greater challenges, including the risk of being left behind from a competitive standpoint,” Bjork added.
