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BYOD Business Opportunity or Big Headache

Business Information Systems I (Ryerson University)

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Synopsis:

In the following article “BYOD: Business Opportunity or Big Headache?”, readers get an

insight into what advantages and disadvantages there are in terms of companies and firms

allowing their employees to bring their own devices or smartphones to work.

In the beginning, the article states that BYOD can increase employee job satisfaction and

productivity, but can also cause a number of problems if not managed properly. This is mainly

due to the fact that allowing employees to bring their own devices to work makes it much more

difficult to manage productivity levels or secure company information on the devices. In

addition, these devices can also sometimes increase management costs, as a study by Aberdeen

Group found that there is an extra $170000 spent with 1000 mobile devices per year, when

BYOD is allowed. The article also states that allowing BYOD means that a significant portion of

corporate IT resources are required to manage and maintain these devices. Mobile digital

landscape has increased over the years, making it very complicated to operate well developed

tools for administration and security. For example, Android has 25000 phone models available,

and makes it difficult for companies to use for corporate work rather than Apple mobile devices.

There are many things a company must take into consideration before allowing its

employees to bring their own device to work. For example, being able to track all devices an

employee is using, being able to receive connections from an employee's device, flexibility

record changes to a device, try to ensure that company related information is kept securely in the

employees device, and so on.

An example of two companies provided in the article who have succeeded and not

succeeded with the BYOD system is of Michelin North America, and Rosendin Electric.

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Rosendin Electric had thousands of employees who were given more than 400 iPads, hundreds

of smartphones, and Microsoft Surface Tablets, which became careless in terms of handling.

Whereas, Michelin North America owned 4000 mobile devices that were obsolete and given to

employees, thus easier to track and handle. Therefore, Michelin North was undeniably successful

in maintaining the BYOD system effectively, whereas Rosendin had difficulties, as they were

unable to properly handle all the devices being used by the employees.

Therefore in conclusion, the article gives a brief insight to readers relating to how

companies can either become successful with the BYOD system, or, fall into hardships if not

maintained effectively.

Case Study Questions and Answers

1. ) What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal

smartphones for work?

There are many advantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work.

For example:

- The use of personal devices can undoubtedly increase productivity, and job satisfaction

as it becomes more convenient for the employees to be able to use their own device.

- Companies do not have to make large investments in devices. They are able to enjoy the

same benefits from an employee's personal device rather than increasing expenses by

spending money on the purchase of these devices.

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- Employees who bring their own devices are readily prepared as to how to use the device.

This saves the company time and money in terms of training the employee how to use a

device.

Despite having advantages, there are disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal

smartphones. For Example:

- The support and supervision of a personally owned device is much more difficult for

companies.

- The cost of managing personal devices can increase significantly. For example, a research

conducted by Aberdeen Group stated that allowing the BYOD causes an enterprise with

1000 mobile devices, on average, to increase its spending by an extra $170,000.

- There are significant security concerns relating to the use of personal devices. It becomes

much more difficult for companies to ensure that personal information relating to the

company is not stolen, if a device is to be lost or stolen. For example, Marble Security

Labs conducted that 1.2 million Android and iOS apps do not adequately secure business

information.

- Allowing employees to use their own device means that the company has automatically

lost some control in terms of tracking employees productivity levels.

2) What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when

deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

Management:

- Companies must be effective in keeping track of all the devices used by employees,

whether it be one or multiple.

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- Companies must develop a management system that track what devices an employee uses

and where it is located.

- Firms must be able to flexibly record changes made to an employees device, changes to

phone numbers or cellular carriers.

- Firms must be able to manage productivity levels of employees on their devices.

Organization:

- Firms must assure to keep costs levels low in terms of the usage of devices and

smartphones.

- Companies must store data related to how many employees use an Android device versus

an iOS device.

- Pre-existing IT infrastructures must be addressed in terms of support, and security before

allowing employees to use their own devices.

Technology:

- Firms must be able to effectively provide employees with proper technological support,

incase help is needed to use the device.

- Firms can develop softwares or applications that can ensure that employees remain

productive.

- Firms can provide employees with softwares that are easy to use.

- Companies must set up an infrastructure or operating system that is able to efficiently

receive connections from the employees devices, allowing the employees to access the

companies information.

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3.) Compare the BYOD experiences of Michelin North America and Rosendin Electric.

Why did BYOD at Michelin work so well?

Rosendin Electric had thousands of employees who were given more than 400 iPads, hundreds

of smartphones, and Microsoft Surface Tablets, which became careless in terms of handling.

Whereas, Michelin North America owned 4000 mobile devices that were obsolete and given to

employees, thus easier to track and handle.

The reason why BYOD at Michelin worked so well is mainly because they implemented their

own version of BYOD. They updated the functionality and mobile technology available to

employees, allowing them to choose between mobile devices and carrier plans. This allowed

increase in employee efficiency, productivity, and satisfaction. Michelin also obtained vendor

discounts thus reducing costs of deploying each mobile device by more than 30%.

4.) Allowing employees to use their own smartphones for work will save the company

money. Do you agree? Why or why not?

I agree with this statement for many reasons:

- Allowing companies to bring their own smartphones to work reduces the companies

expenses and costs. This is because the company does not have to worry about spending

money on purchasing these devices for their employees, thus costs for these devices are

shifted to the employees instead.

- These companies enjoy benefits available on the smartphone, without having to invest in

it themselves.

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- The company saves money and time, as they do not have to worry about training their

employees as to how to use the smartphone or device. Since these smartphones are

personally owned, employees are comfortable with using them and require minimum help

from the company.

- In addition, companies will also not have to worry about investing heavily in their IT

infrastructure for device support, as these employees will barely need help with a

personally owned device.

Works Cited

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2017). Management information systems: Managing the

digital firm. Pearson Education South Asia Pte.

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