It seems like just yesterday, the business world was scrambling to manage the inherent security risks of BYOD. Now, just when your IT department thought everything was under control, along comes BYOA. So what does BYOA mean for your company? Check out this guide to the ways third-party apps are changing how employees compute.
2. BYOA Is the New BYOD.
In the beginning, there was IT, and it was good. IT brought security and centralized control to companies.
Then, laptops, tablets, smartphones and other consumer-friendly devices came to be. Employees
responded with glee to these shiny objects, engaging in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) at work. Sensing a
disturbance in the Force, IT rushed to restore security through remote controls. Then, employees began
engaging in BYOIT (Be Your Own IT), consulting Google for quick fixes and workarounds. IT took this new
security threat in stride, restoring safety through remote scans.
Now, there is a new disturbance in the Force — BYOA (Bring Your Own Apps). Employees are using third-
party apps and cloud services to get work done at home and in the office. And while employees are
relishing the endless options the cloud offers, there are pros and cons you should consider. Read on for
the top 8.
70% of employees
access corporate data via their personal smartphone or tablet
67% of employees
bring their own smartphone to work
20% of employees
bring their own smartphone to work despite a company anti-BYOD
Source: http://ovum.com/press_releases/ovum-warns-byod-is-here-to-stay-and-urges-cios-to-respond-with-a-clear-strategy
3. BYOA Pro #1: Employee Engagement
It’s no surprise that employees work faster and accomplish more when they are able to use an app or
cloud service that they know and like. Employees can even lead others in their group or department to
discover apps that will significantly improve everyone’s work processes. Aside from the productivity
benefits of increased speed, both of these behaviors produce happier employees, who have a higher
satisfaction level in their work. Plus, sharing apps to help co-workers increase speed and efficiency
carries the added bonus of creating an atmosphere of teamwork.
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/byod-resistance-is-futile/240156173
“Trying to stand in the path of consumerized mobility is
likely to be a damaging and futile exercise. Businesses
are better served by exploiting this behavior to increase
employee engagement and productivity, and promote
the benefits of enterprise mobility.”
-Richard Absalom, Consumer Impact Technology Analyst at Ovum
4. BYOA Pro #2: Improved Productivity
The modern world is addicted to instant gratification and investing in tools that improve productivity is
one of the easiest ways to gain an advantage over the competition. The beautiful thing about BYOA is
that it enables employees to work faster and smarter, producing better results and achieving goals with
efficiency and speed. In fact, recent research revealed that approximately one out of every five small
businesses is experiencing productivity gains of more than 30%, thanks to the increase of mobile work
Source: http://ovum.com/press_releases/ovum-warns-byod-is-here-to-stay-and-urges-cios-to-respond-with-a-clear-strategy/
25% of employees use their own enterprise social networking apps
22% of employees use their own file sync and share apps
30% of employees use their own IM/VoIP apps
5. BYOA Pro #3: No Train. No Pain.
Once upon a time, companies spent a ton of money training new employees how to use each and every
enterprise-centric software application. Unfortunately, updates to these apps often required significant
amounts of time and money to then retrain all employees.
Thanks to BYOA, all the time and money wasted on training and re-training employees, as well as the cost
of IT upgrading and maintaining old company apps is now saved. Because BYOA requires no training or
upkeep, companies can reinvest their time and money on more important things, like growth strategies or
better break-room muffins.
Source: http://www.tlnt.com/2013/01/23/new-study-says-spending-on-training-jumped-by-12-last-year
Businesses increased workplace training and development spending by 12% in 2012
U.S. companies spend an average of $706 per learner on employee training
6. BYOA Pro #4: The Least Known Super-Power
of Business Apps? Affordability!
Perhaps the biggest perk companies can take from BYOA is that most business apps offer a free individual
account for new users, so employees can enjoy the benefits of these apps without costing the company
money. Of course, free accounts typically offer limited storage or a certain number of uses before
requiring a user to upgrade to a paying account, so if you have a lot of employees using an app, you’ll likely
need to upgrade.
The good news is that most of the enterprise apps that require payment, charge a nominal monthly fee.
For example, to provide employees with business level storage capacity from Box, you’ll pay just $15 per
user each month. When compared to the costs of developing and maintaining proprietary enterprise apps,
$15 per employee is a steal of a deal.
Source: http://blog.flurry.com/bid/99013/The-History-of-App-Pricing-And-Why-Most-Apps-Are-Free
7. BYOA Con #1: IT Must Manage BYOA
At first, BYOA appears to save IT time. Employees are using apps that IT didn’t build or install, so they
shouldn’t have to waste time managing them, right? Wrong. Because of the inherent security risks involved
with storing and accessing corporate information in a cloud located outside the system, it’s imperative that
IT get involved early on the BYOA train before it takes the whole company off track.
The right way to begin managing BYOA is to develop a strategy that protects corporate information while
enabling employees to remain highly productive. To gain employee buy-in, be sure to include them in the
process by gathering input about the apps they use or want to use. Then, establish a firm and friendly
BYOA policy that explains security risks and provides easy-to-adopt rules and regulations for employees
using outside apps.
Source: http://tabtimes.com/feature/ittech-apps/2012/11/15/enterprise-developer-says-2013-will-be-year-mobile-apps-business
Source: http://tabtimes.com/news/ittech-stats-research/2012/10/10/smartphones-tablets-and-byod-are-forcing-enterprises-improve
50+More than half of U.S. companies
have made line-of-business apps
accessible from mobile devices
73%of businesses rated increased
efficiency as a key benefit of
mobile computing
66%of workers use two or more
devices for work each day, and
16% of those use up to four
screens
8. BYOA Con #2: IT Must Provide Support for
BYOA
In addition to requiring an investment of IT time, smart BYOA management often requires IT to support a
variety of non-standard devices and applications, which can get expensive. One way to contain these costs
is to offer support for apps based on the percentage of adoptions. For example, if only 5% of employees are
using a business app, like Hubspot, then it’s safe to say, IT can focus resources on more important things.
But, if 30% of employees are using Hubspot, then IT might consider a plan to support the product.
Another way to address this issue is to create a company app store where employees can access the most
popular apps and obtain low-level support from IT, or more complex tech support from the actual app
developer/provider.
Source: http://tabtimes.com/news/ittech-stats-research/2013/02/13/1-4-enterprises-will-have-their-own-app-store-2017-byoa-now
Source: http://tabtimes.com/news/ittech-stats-research/2013/01/15/mobile-business-apps-were-worth-25-billion-last-year-will-be
1 in 4 enterprises will have their own app store by 2017
200 million mobile workers will be using mobile business apps in 2013
Revenue from mobile business apps is projected to reach $50 billion by the end of 2017
9. BYOA Con #3: Security
According to Forrester Research, companies have listed improving or implementing mobile and app
security as their highest priority for next year, and establishing a mobile strategy as their second highest
priority. Securing sensitive corporate data inside a public cloud-based app presents a greater challenge
than BYOD, but not an impossible one.
In addition to establishing and implementing acceptable use standards for BYOA, companies can use
containerization to control network access. Containerization enables IT to “contain” (control) access to
business apps by having employees use a single-sign-on password on their device or at the company app
store to access pre-approved company apps. This practice enhances security by enabling IT to control
which apps are approved for employee use and controlling whether or not an app is approved for copying,
printing and pasting data.
Source: http://tabtimes.com/news/ittech-stats-research/2012/10/10/smartphones-tablets-and-byod-are-forcing-enterprises-improve
plan to improve or
implement mobile
security in the next
12 months
55%OF COMPANIES
46%OF COMPANIES
22%OF COMPANIES
believe improving
mobile security is
critical for their
business
have implemented a
mobile strategy for
smartphones
52%OF COMPANIES
have implemented a
mobile strategy for
tablets
10. BYOA Con #4: Complying with Interstate Data
Laws
Employees who handle sensitive or regulated information, and who use the cloud to store corporate
data may be unwittingly breaking state and federal data protection laws that govern where sensitive
information can be stored.
To ensure your employees stay compliant, make sure everyone in the enterprise understands what type of
information is okay to store in the cloud and what information is not.
Source:http://cloudcomputingtopics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Clouspectator.png
60% of server workloads will be virtualized by 2014
$160 Billion: the size of the cloud computing market by 2013
57% of cloud users maintain the cloud has improved their security
11. The Ultimate Pro
CloudEntr — Simplicity & Security in a BYOA World
We hope our eBook, “8 Ways BYOA Is Changing the Workplace” has inspired you to plan a good BYOA
strategy for your company. To learn more about CloudEntr, download more eBooks, or view a demo, please
visit CloudEntr.com/latest-resources.