More than half of UK office workers believe the business isn’t delivering the technology they need to be productive, with 40 per cent of the working population already choosing to rebel against internal IT by using their own unauthorised kit.
Research from Hornbill Service Management highlights the scale of the BYOD problem, with workers convinced that personal devices will save them two hours per month in productivity. According to Hornbill, if this figure was mapped across the entire UK workforce, it would save the economy £2 billion per year.
It’s not just procurement teams that should be concerned by the BYOD trend, with a changing culture for support largely bypassing traditional IT support. 82 per cent of workers surveyed say they prefer to speak to a colleague for help with an IT problem rather than ring the service desk.
Patrick Bolger, chief evangelist at Hornbill, told ServiceDesk360 that the failure of IT to adapt to clear customer demand is indicative of entrenched thinking. “We need to ask ourselves what business we’re in today. We are here to help our customers perform. We’ll always have to offer efficiency and a stable service, but what’s the real value? Talk to your customers about what they really care about and, as our research suggests, you’ll find they want BYOD and innovation from IT to make them work more effectively.”
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I have little first hand knowledge of BYOD as it is simply not allowed in my workplace. Is it really the case that “40 per cent of the working population are already choosing to rebel against internal IT by using their own unauthorised kit.”?
Does BYOD mean that people are using their personal smartphones, laptops, iPads etc. to do work on or does it really mean that people expect their employer to provide such devices that they can use for work and personal use?
There is a big difference here because employer provided devices can be more tightly controlled and therefore properly supported as guided by ITIL.
As I said, I have little personal knowledge of BYOD but, as the issue seems to be the “hot IT topic of the day” which is driving debate and putting the future of IT Service Management in doubt, then I thought I should get some facts.
Thanks for your comment David. The 40 per cent referred to in the research does mean individuals who are using their own devices in a working capacity (either in the workplace directly, or for emails/contact on the move). The notion of businesses telling staff what they can and cannot use works is antiquated and futile – it works only in favour of the business/IT department, so workers are simply side-stepping corporate technology. The ramifications of this are huge, if the trend continues (which it will, I rarely saw iPads in a business context two years ago, now they are everywhere), what will be left of the IT department? If staff procure, customise and use their own technology, and as the research suggests get support from peers rather than the service desk, the grip IT has on technology becomes even more tenuous.
For me, businesses have two options. They either procure tablets and smartphone and give the business the tech and support it wants. Or they allow BYOD, offer a level of support, and then refocus on providing IT services that benefit the business rather than providing break/fix services (the second option is the most sensible to me). There is no third option in my opinion, pretending this isn’t an issue is deluded. This isn’t going to happen, it is happening now – people ditched their fiddly, outdated Blackberry years ago. People are not to revert to antiquated tech because it’s a pain for the IT department.
James West
Editor
ServiceDesk360