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“BYOD is very mature today and extremely popular amongst consumers,” says Nigel Seddon, Area Director at LANDESK. “Over a third of workers have purchased a device for work, and almost a third of these have spent at least £500 over the last five years on their devices. Compared to the average yearly spend of £97.12 on tea and coffee, having technology for work and play is as essential to many as food and drink is.

“This clearly saves IT departments a great deal. However, they need to ensure that they have visibility of these devices and can support them cost-effectively without compromising security, but there are clear financial benefits to be considered.”

The research was conducted across 1,000 office workers in the UK and exposed how device proliferation has, and is, changing employee personal and professional lives. Of the 39% of workers that had purchased a personal IT device for work, laptops and smartphones (33%, 30% respectively) were the most popular. The IT environment is evolving so much so that 13% of employees were part of a ‘Choose Your Own Device’ approach.

The research also highlighted that organisations are still the main point of responsibility for ensuring the licensing and compliance of these devices, with only 27% of workers admitting personal responsibility, compared to 63% who saw the organisation as responsible. However, the research also revealed that IT security is not being neglected, with only 5% of workers admitting that their device lacked a password, biometric login or visual security pattern.

“Traditionally you would expect smartphones and tablets to be the two main devices being brought in from home so it is interesting to see laptops and desktops on this list as well,” concludes Seddon. “In this day and age organisations should be supported by technology, not shackled by it, to help enable their business goals – and BYOD is a trend which is not going away. However, if the right measures aren’t taken to support the devices being brought into the business, the benefits will quickly become a hindrance and start to make life difficult for both the organisation and the employees.”

Adam Thilthorpe, Director of Professionalism at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT adds: “BYOD brings with it the challenge of striking a balance between getting the best return out of mobile devices, without compromising the organisation’s security standards. Key to this is having policies in place which maximise the advantages and minimise risks associated with BYOD.

Ensuring security and managing information in this environment requires new skills and expertise within a team. A successful BYOD policy requires the combined input of IT, HR and legal departments in order to fully address potential training requirements of employees and the legal implications surrounding the practice.”

To download the full research report visit:
http://landesk.emeamarketing.net/lp/2020_workplace