Saturday, July 21, 2012

Will you Bring Your Own Device?

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend has become quite a popular one over the last few years.

Why?


It all started with the iPhone. People loved iPhones. Corporate IT departments didn't. Main reason is that until recently, at least, managing iPhones was hard for the IT departments. Or at least such is the perception.

Then came the Android. While Android platform is more open than iPhone, the corporate IT integration still wasn't quite readily available.

However, despite the IT departments resistance, iOS and Android based smart phones and tablets are making their way into corporate networks. People just want to use them. 

When we introduced iPhones internally at Vadacom, our productivity significantly increased. It has given us an edge over larger, slow moving competitors. In many corporate organizations, senior executives understand this. So they bring their own iPhones and Androids despite IT department's best wishes, thus creating a headache for the IT manager.

Personally, I don't believe that BYOD is necessarily a long term trend. I think it only exists because people want to bring their own iPhones and Androids to work. This issue, for example, doesn't exist at Vadacom as we provide our staff with a choice of smart phones - iPhones or Androids.

So the trend will only continue until the corporate mobile device management (MDM) software catches up to all the latest iPhones and Androids.

Recently Apple has stepped up the game by quietly releasing a free Apple Configurator utility for OS X in March 2012.

You can find this utility by clicking here.


You can find a review here.

There are also Multi-OS Mobile Device management platforms available, such as MobileIron.

I've been watching the adoption trends of iPhone and Android with keen interest. Vadacom was amongst the first in the world to release unified communication client integration for the iPhone. The equivalent Android software is now also available in beta version.

One great thing about VadaXchange iPhone and Android software is that all the settings and security is controlled from the VadaXchange server.

I would be keen to hear more views from people - is BYOD here to stay or is it a temporary blip trend only relevant until such time as the corporate IT departments figured out how to control iPhones and Androids?

Igor Portugal
CEO Vadacom.

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