YOU ARE AT:WirelessSurvey shows BYOD increases IT frustration

Survey shows BYOD increases IT frustration

A recent survey shows that the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is impacting IT departments worldwide, increasing frustration and the loss of control as well as raising concerns over rising mobile data costs. In the 2013 Mobile Enterprise Report, released by iPass and MobileIron, the majority of survey respondents, 57%, thought their mobile data roaming costs would rise in 2013, with 8% saying they will rise more than 25%.

The survey noted that mobile IT has the huge potential to improve workforce productivity, while it also introduces significant new challenges for enterprises. Indeed, BYOD creates new challenges for IT. Of the survey’s respondents, 53.8% said their companies had a BYOD policy. The report also found that despite internal doubts, IT policies are becoming more flexible. A majority of respondents said their corporate guidelines had become more accommodating of employees’ personal devices over the past year, likely in reaction to employee demands.

The survey shows that the top two sources of frustration were onboarding and then supporting the increasing number and variety of personal devices, both far outranking even security concerns.

The survey also found that IT is increasingly losing control of mobility budgets as other departments assume greater responsibility for mobile initiatives. In fact, IT is losing control of mobility management: 40% of companies’ mobility budgets are now managed by non-IT departments.

Another IT concern is related to rising data costs. According to the survey, 44% of IT managers named the growing number of devices per mobile worker as a factor; 41% highlighted expensive 3G (and LTE) data plans; and 22% pointed to an increase in the number of mobile workers as the major cost culprits.

Regarding mobile devices, the survey noted that increasingly flexible policies are changing the device mix in the enterprise. In 2011, RIM’s BlackBerry was the top enterprise smartphone with support at 77% of companies. Apple’s iPhone was second with a presence at 52% of enterprises. In the latest Mobile Enterprise Survey, the brands have switched places. Apple’s iPhone is now the leader, with support from 74% of enterprises. BlackBerry held onto second place with 62%, but its popularity is rapidly eroding.

Although new device lines surged, such as Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 and RIM’s BlackBerry 10, only 34% of IT managers plan to support BlackBerry 10, compared to 45% who plan to support Windows Phone 8 devices going forward.

As for tablets, they are set to go mainstream. Between 2011 and 2012, tablet usage increased in all non-executive departments. In 2012, IT managers increased tablet support for a number of non-executive departments, including sales, marketing, engineering, finance/accounting, HR/administration and legal (deployments ranged from tablets as laptop replacements to tablets as additional mobile devices). Legal and HR/administration saw the biggest boost in tablet support (each department increased 14% year-over-year) followed by finance/accounting (increasing 13% year-over-year).


ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.