Would it be cheaper to just buy a single model of mobile device for employees in lieu of BYOD support?

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Would it be cheaper to just buy a single model of mobile device for employees in lieu of BYOD support?

StillADotcommer 1 year ago

A significant and growing amount of IT's time is spent on BYOD support. The more liberal (and popular) the BYOD policy as to what devices are supported/allowed, the more time we've had to devote to support. Much of the time it sounds like an episode of The IT Crowd where problems have to be addressed for people. One guy has bricked two android phones trying to root them, and expects IT to take care of it for him. I'm tempted to suggest that he buy a new iPhone 4S and just sit back and wait to see if he finds a way to brick it too. It makes me wonder if it would be easier and ultimately cheaper to just pick a device or limited set of devices, and provide them to employees at company expense.

Tags: android, apple, BYOD, consumerization, mobile devices

Topic: Consumerization of IT

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jimlynch 1 year ago

I guess you'd have to sit down and figure out the dollar figures. How much is the BYOD support costing you? How much would it cost to pay for one mobile platform? Then go with whichever is cheaper over the long run.

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lbloom 1 year ago

I think that you would have a lot of upset employees if you tried to make the change after allowing for BYOD. If you have never supported BYOD, then the idea might well be a popular one. "Hey, our company is so cool they are giving us all an iPhone 4S." It's much easier to be seen as giving people something versus taking something away. Either way, if IT is spending so much time on supporting "unsupported" devices that it is preventing work that is actually productive from being done in a reasonable timeframe, I would suggest presenting the issue to whoever is charge of hiring as the cost of additional hires vs. providing devices.

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