SHOULD YOU USE YOUR IPHONE FOR WORK?

Look around. On the street, at restaurants, sports events, and stores, you’ll find many people using

their smartphones. And many people are starting to use these devices on the job as well. According to a

Juniper Research report, the number of employees who use personal devices at work will increase to

350 million by 2014. About 150 million people use their own mobile phones and tablets at the workplace

today.

If almost everyone has a personal smartphone, why not use it for work? Employees using their own smartphones would allow companies to enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money on these devices, but IT departments need to overcome several logistical hurdles

to make that vision a reality. Using personal devices for business poses difficult problems for companies,

including security, inventory management, support, integrating mobile devices into pre-existing IT functions and systems, and measuring return on investment. In other words, it’s not that simple.

A significant portion of corporate IT resources is dedicated to managing and maintaining a large number

of devices within an organization. In the past, companies tried to limit business smartphone use to

a single platform. This made it easier to keep track of each mobile device and to roll out software upgrades

or fixes, because all employees were using the same devices, or at the very least, the same operating system.

The most popular employer-issued smartphone used to be Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, because

it was considered the “most secure” mobile platform available. (BlackBerry mobile devices access corporate e-mail and data using a proprietary software and networking platform that is company-controlled and protected from outsiders.) Today, the mobile digital landscape is much more complicated, with a variety of devices and operating systems on the market that do not have well-developed tools for administration and security.

If employees are allowed to work with more than one type of mobile device and operating system, companies need an effective way to keep track of all the devices employees are using. To access company information, the company’s networks must be configured to receive connections from that device. When employees make changes to their personal phone, such as switching cellular carriers, changing their phone number, or buying a new mobile device altogether, companies will need to quickly and flexibly ensure that their employees are still able to remain productive. Firms need an efficient inventory management system that keeps track of which devices employees are using, where the device is located, whether it is being used,

and what software it is equipped with. For unprepared companies, keeping track of who gets access to what

data could be a nightmare.

With the variety of phones and operating systems available, providing adequate technical support for

every employee could be difficult. When employees are not able to access critical data or encounter other

problems with their mobile devices, they will need assistance from the information systems department.

Companies that rely on desktop computers tend to have many of the same computers with the same

specs and operating systems, making tech support that much easier. Mobility introduces a new layer of

variety and complexity to tech support that companies need to be prepared to handle.

A firm’s software development teams can benefit from having one person specifically focused on ensuring

that new applications will be easily usable and useful on smartphones. Many companies are integrating

these “mobility experts” into core IT functions and software development. Unless applications and

software can be used on mobile devices to connect to the firm’s existing IT platform and company-wide

customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and enterprise resource

planning (ERP) systems, a business smartphone is just a phone, and mobility experts can help a company

leverage mobility more effectively.

There are significant concerns with securing company information accessed with mobile devices.

If a device is stolen or compromised, companies need ways to ensure that sensitive or confidential

information isn’t freely available to anyone. Mobility puts assets and data at greater risk than if they were

only located within company walls and on company machines. Companies often use technologies that

allow them to wipe data from devices remotely, or encrypt data so that if it is stolen, it cannot be used.

You’ll find a detailed discussion of mobile security issues in Chapter 8.

A number of software products have emerged to help companies manage diverse mobile platforms.

Sybase Afaria, Trellia, Microsoft Systems Center Device Manager, and Odyssey Software Athena have

capabilities for configuring devices remotely, enforcing different sets of policies for different users and devices, and managing applications running on all of them.

Novo Nordisk, headquartered in Denmark, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and

services throughout the world. Its 2,000-member sales force operates in 25 different countries, and uses a

diverse assortment of mobile phones, smartphones, and mobile handhelds. To manage all of these devices

centrally, Novo Nordisk implemented Sybase Afaria.

Using Afaria, the company’s internal IT department can deploy new applications to mobile devices quickly

and without extensive end-user interaction. A new mobile phone user just needs to answer “yes” to Novo

Nordisk’s configuration process and the installation happens automatically. Afaria also has features for

enabling individual countries or regions to provide their own local support, a necessity since each Novo

Nordisk market has it own data connections, policies, and requirements.

Another approach to mobile device management is virtualization. Companies can install software such

as Citrix Systems XenDesktop that runs Windows desktops and individual applications on any device,

regardless of the operating system. Employees then use that software to access their entire desktop on

their smartphones and mobile handhelds, and are thus able to use the same programs on the road that

they use in the office. The virtualization software has built-in security features that allow corporations to prohibit saving data on local devices, to encrypt all corporate data without touching employees’ personal

applications and data, and to remotely erase the data in the event of a security breach. India’s Anthem

Group, a leading provider of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology services, implemented Citrix XenDesktop

to enable employees to remotely access data because this virtualization solution runs on all devices with

minimal bandwidth consumption.

In order to successfully deploy mobile devices, companies need to carefully examine their business

processes and determine whether or not mobility makes sense for them. Not every firm will benefit

from mobility to the same degree. Without a clear idea of how exactly mobile devices fit into the long-term

plans for the firm, companies will end up wasting their money on unnecessary devices and programs.

One of the biggest worries that managers have about mobility is the difficulty of measuring return on

investment. Many workers swear by their mobile devices, and the benefits are too significant to ignore,

but quantifying how much money is earned or saved by going mobile can be difficult.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

2. What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work?

3. Allowing employees to use their own smartphones for work will save the company money. Do you agree? Why or why not?