Whilst I agree that Gartner do make some valuable points and on your point, that the focus should be on securing enterprise apps and data regardless of delivery method, I do feel that there are some other key factors that need to be highlighted in respect of why many BYOD projects fail to deliver expected outcomes or lead to an exasperated workforce.

To fully exploit the power of the enterprise mobility in the workplace and to mitigate failure, it is imperative to view any implementation of BYOD, CYOD or hybrid thereof, not as an ad hoc deployment of technology and systems, but as a programme that requires careful business and technology planning. Any organisation embarking on such a programme needs to formulate an Enterprise Mobility Strategy that it includes the business and technology as well as governance aspects of mobility. It should define business goals and objectives, lay out an implementation roadmap, determine policies for governance, define relevant measurement models and address employee usage and adoption considerations. This all-embracing view of strategy is critical to securing the success of impending and future mobile related projects, internal and external focused.

A key consideration for success in any enterprise mobility strategy or indeed programme, often overlooked, or marginalised, is the importance of addressing the people challenge not just the technological one. This challenge is effectively one of a complex series of workspace change management issues encompassing new work styles that employees need to adopt, new technologies, processes and policies they have to learn, and even new ways of people management. Hence usage and adoption education, training and awareness activities need to be a critical part of any mobility initiative, introducing users to security and policy guidelines, potential risks and threats regarding company and client information, ensuring they are adequately briefed to use any tools responsibly, and allowing IT and management to set expectations. It can also provide the opportunity to demonstrate the potential beyond using the mobile device to check email and take the occasional call and for an open dialog between BYOD users, management, and the IT department that can contribute to the success of the program. Beyond programme roll-out, and new employee, training, on-going campaigns need to be considered to encourage utilisation of new enterprise mobile apps/tools, and for user groups to experiment and share their experiences with one another for social enterprise channels.

Here at Logicalis as part of our internal Enterprise Mobility programme, but also for use with our clients, we have developed a consultative strategic approach to the deployment of technologies that support and enable BYOD policies , utilising our “Mobility Experience Framework” which is designed to helping an organisation define and implement their mobility strategy and to offer both practical advice alongside proven solutions and services to make mobility a truly rewarding business experience for users and a less complex experience for the IT departments servicing their needs.

David Bennett
Proposition Manager, Communications & Collaboration
Logicalis UK Ltd