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Would like to hear your description on the differences between “IL” and “BYOD”
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@jbertram I would like to see people talk less about individual liability and focus more instead on individual responsibility. Does BYOD mean you are instantly liable should the device be lost or stolen? Shouldn’t IT be involved there also – with the expectation that the employee notified his/her employer as soon as possible that the device was stolen? That’s why I think we need to focus on what we should expect from employees in this brave new BYOD world.
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I think that does the conversation a disservice though. Every companies issues around BYOD are not about the technology. The issues circle around liablity (support), security and compliance. Three things employees care little about.
You made the same point:
“When we have our IT departments say “you can’t do that” or “we’ll have that in about six months,” we now call BS and say, “Oh please, there’s a new (almost) free service that lets me do this in five minutes”
Those free services don’t care about security and compliance. We’re cruising along a highway with no seatbelts at this point. A major accident will occur at some point and someone will get burned by employee’s lack of caring about these things. Didn’t some “free” site just have a major privacy issue with its data?
I’m fully for enabling employees, pushing productivity / efficiencies but you have to have some balance. Employees need to fully understand their role beyond they get to use whatever device they fancy.
BYOD right now has little to do with employee benefit. It’s the new cost shift similar to health care to off load costs corporations don’t want to deal with anymore. I understand the reasoning (one device, they have the device anyways etc) but for some employees it leaves a bad taste. Why use your own device and deal with the security and in some cases restrictions enforced for this “perk”?
What do you do for the employee who will not use their own device? I think we’re just having a shift and will just have a smaller corporate liable deployment model where key people do get a device assigned. The I don’t like the Blackberry model offered is just the tip. What if X employee is a die hard Android user but work issues an iPhone, you have the SAME two device issue from the past just a new flavor of it.
Perhaps everything will just be Apple products soon enough then we’ll all just use the same devices regardless.
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But what if the employer says you can have anything you want, as long as it’s ours? Also, what was the site that just got hacked? I don’t necessarily agree with your statement that these free-mium services don’t care about security.
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I don’t see many places offering that option, you have to have some degree of standards or support costs just go through the roof. Maybe you have a iPhone / Blackberry model. The new Windows Phone update this year is finally bringing some enterprise features. I think you can’t have it both ways. Either you go full corporate liable and control the devices you use (models, features etc) or do a little of both via BYOD for those that desire something else (ahem Apple). The other option is even less adopted. Fully IL with a stipend. Maybe that flavor gains traction but I don’t think most enterprises feel they have enough employees with mobile devices or eager to use it for work purposes.
Path.com had a pretty bad issue with costumer data
http://blog.path.com/post/17274932484/we-are-sorry?tw_p=twt
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And here’s a brand new example of an organization swapping out its corporate provided BlackBerries for corporate provided iPhones.
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I completely agree that these terms are being used interchangeably, and it can be confusing to people learning about the subjects. Even tech journalists are writing about how BYOD means changing over from Blackberrys to iPhones and Androids.
Bring Your OWN Device means just that; employees using their personal devices for work. In my opinion, “Consumerization of IT” means that enterprise is embracing technologies and concepts that were previously thought of as consumer-focused. It’s very much possible for a company to offer iPhones and Androids to employees as corporate devices.
I’ve written more thoughts about confusion surrounding BYOD, in our blog here: http://www.avema.com/mobile_device_management_blog/byod/confusion-about-byod-issues/
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Philippe, this is a great write-up on the differences between the two. Thanks for putting this together. We get a lot of questions on the two topics, and I’ll mention this post as a good reference on the subject. Also enjoyed the “IT-ization of the Cosumer”…
Thanks!
Brandon Hill – Wavelink 0 0 -
*Consumer
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Understanding The Difference Between The Consumerization of IT and BYOD
One interesting conversation that percolated during the TweetChat was the ever popular topic of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the Consumerization of IT. A lot of people were using the terms interchangeably, and unfortunately, I can’t help but feel as if that does the two issues a disservice. It’s understandable though that the two terms would be used interchangeably given how they are so inter-related, but they are none the less two distinct issues. If you don’t mind, today, I ‘d like to share my take on what the two mean.
Let me start with the easy one. BYOD. That’s about as straight forward as it gets. People want to bring into the workplace the devices that they have purchased for their own use because they have made a conscientious choice in terms of product preference. Gone are the days where employees will quietly accept whatever the IT department has mandated they use as employees. Work is no longer 9 to 5 and given our never ending desire to be constantly connected, we are now working more and more during “off hours” (whatever the heck that means)…so why not use the devices we like most for both personal and professional use? OK…BYOD easily defined.
The next one is far more nuanced. The Consumerization of IT – and on this little spot on the Internet – the Consumerization of Enterprise Mobility, is technically NOT the same as BYOD. I’ve said it a thousand (million?) times that the Consumerization of Enterprise Mobility as manifested by BYOD is the radical departure. So what does Consumerization of IT mean? The short short version is that IT should not be complicated or complex to use. “Consumer” products are supposed to be “easy” to install and use (although some home gadgets still come with instruction manuals the size of War and Peace). “Consumer” devices are supposed to be intuitive and just work out of the box. It makes me think of the Ronco Rotisserie, where the guy would say “Set it and Forget it!”
This is why Apple has had so much success with its iOS devices. They just work….and for the most part, you can “Set it and Forget it!” (although you’re probably going to end up playing Angry Birds all day.
So today, every company is looking for ways to improve the usability (and the aesthetics) of their products. Why should you have to click or tap on four different buttons if you should be able to do it in one or two? That’s what Consumerization is all about (at least in my opinion). In fact, there’s a great irony. In the “old” days, we would always say that Consumer Grade was inferior to Enterprise Grade. My how things have changed. Nowadays, we expect even our Enterprise products to have great Consumer experiences. Part of that comes from the flip side of the Consumerization of IT.
The IT-ization of the Consumer.
We have all become more tech savvy (even my mom). We know how to use a laptop, we expect to find things in The Cloud (whatever the heck that is) and we also expect to be able to do the same things we do on our PCs on our mobile devices. When we have our IT departments say “you can’t do that” or “we’ll have that in about six months,” we now call BS and say, “Oh please, there’s a new (almost) free service that lets me do this in five minutes….why can’t I just use that? (I could go on an ITSM tangent but I won’t today).
So back to BYOD vs. Consumerization. Take the following example. Your company was a 100% corporate liable BlackBerry shop and then decided to allow employees to order whatever device they want….but still purchased by the company. That’s clearly a scenario where the Consumerization of IT has impacted IT’s decision making process. What if every employee in this scenario chose BlackBerry devices (I know, I know…)? That’s still Consumerization…but obviously not BYOD.
So in closing, BYOD and Consumerization of IT are two very important trends that will definitely have an impact on the workplace for years to come. It’s important to understand that they are distinct concepts with some overlap, and an equal amount of mutual exclusivity.