The Indian IT space has undergone a significant change with the introduction of feature-rich smartphones and tablets, which allow users to access a wide range of professional and enterprise-related services on their personal devices. Employees’ personal devices are often more sophisticated and updated in terms of technology as compared to the hardware and software deployed by the IT department of their organisations. Further, the use of personal devices for official purposes provides employees with flexibility in terms of remotely accessing important official data and information, thus making off-site work seamless. As a result, the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) concept, wherein employees use their personal devices to accomplish work-related tasks, is gaining traction amongst Indian enterprises.

 Benefits and opportunities

Encouraging employees to use personal devices for professional tasks has resulted in increased productivity and employee satisfaction for companies. With the blending of the personal and the professional on a single device, employees are more inclined to work from home or while travelling as they do not have to switch to a separate device for fulfilling work-related tasks. This also ensures that the workforce remains constantly accessible to division heads. Further, employees are more comfortable with and competent on their own devices, which helps them work more efficiently.

The BYOD concept also results in significant cost savings for enterprises on account of reduced spend on hardware, software licensing and device maintenance. In many cases, it has been observed that employees tend to be a lot more careless and wasteful in handling company-owned devices vis-à-vis their personal equipment. Moreover, it is believed that personal devices of employees are more technologically advanced and state of the art as compared to an enterprise’s IT hardware as they constantly upgrade their devices with new systems available in the market.

As per a study by Cisco and the Data Security Council of India on BYOD trends in the country, about 66 per cent security leaders and chief information officers in India encourage their employees to bring their own devices to work.

Challenges

While many Indian enterprises are now formulating their own BYOD strategies, the concept brings with it a plethora of issues related to data security, access control, platform maintenance and application support. A key challenge is to devise an IT strategy for managing and supporting a host of different and unique operating systems utilised by the large base of employees. The IT department of an organisation is bound to find it difficult to achieve economies of scale in equipment support as BYOD involves the use of non-standardised equipment.

Besides, data security is a key concern. Accidental data loss or planned information theft has the potential to expose corporate data centres and information stores. Smartphones are often not highly protected as the user may download/install several third-party applications for personal use, which in turn can be susceptible to virus and malware attack. Since the BYOD concept results in a variety of devices entering organisations’ systems, the security concerns of IT administrators increase. Further, management of various devices  and implementing BYOD policies make a significant dent in a company’s IT spend. A firm has to impart training to its IT administrators for quicker resolution of technical problems on different platforms as well as invest in specialised troubleshooting equipment and solutions.

 Emerging trends

An emerging trend is the growing support from channel partners for the BYOD concept. Original equipment manufacturers and service providers are gearing up to design highly secured and encrypted smartphones to support business applications. Channel partners’ support is crucial to organisations to ensure effective deployment of the BYOD policy. Currently, there are very few Indian enterprises that have clearly defined policies/processes in this space. The partner community can help these enterprises in choosing the right solution.

Mobile network operators and device manufacturers also stand to gain from the increasing adoption of BYOD in India. Operators are offering customised solutions that are more enterprise oriented. Device manufacturers, such as BlackBerry and Samsung, are integrating applications in their handsets and shifting to push mail services in a big way.

Further, given the set of challenges faced while going the BYOD way, many enterprises in India are considering the concept of choose-your-own-device (CYOD), which builds on the advantages of BYOD. Under the CYOD policy, IT managers provide their employees with a menu of devices that are compatible with the organisation’s technical set-up. Thus, employees get to choose their preferred computing device while allowing the IT department to standardise security and management over a range of enterprise-approved devices.

 Conclusion

Over the past few years, the way the Indian enterprises work has undergone a significant change. The need for seamless communication and real-time execution of workflow has led to an increase in the adoption of mobility solutions by enterprises. This, coupled with a surging uptake of high-tech smartphones by the workforce, is making a compelling case for the adoption of BYOD by Indian enterprises for enhancing workforce productivity.