Benefits of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - Essay Example

?Management of Information: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Executive Summary The essay intends to illustrate about how the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)program could be beneficial to the organisations in the context of modern day business environment and its allied altering needs. The essay would describe the risks that are involved with the incorporation of BYOD in the business. It would further recommend AVIVA Plc to implement the BYOD program in their operations keeping in consideration the positives as well as the negatives of the program. It has been observed in the essay that BYOD program is quite beneficial in increasing the satisfaction of the employees and also to augment productivity of organisations. However, there are also certain privacy and security concerns which could be resolved with the incorporation and practice of certain steps and techniques. On the basis of those benefits and the rectification of the prevailing risks, the implementation of the BYOD program is recommended to AVIVA Plc. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Benefits and Challenges of BYOD Program 5 Benefits Related to BYOD Program 5 Risk Related to BYOD Program 6 Recommendations 7 Benefits of Mobile Devices in Employee Satisfaction and Productivity in AVIVA Plc 10 Conclusion 11 11 References 12 Introduction Aviva Plc is one of the most prominent and well known insurance companies of the world with its operations in various parts across the globe. It has been analysed that the company deals with certain products or services, such as insurance, savings and fund management among others. Geographically, the company operates in varied regions, which include the United Kingdom, Asia and Europe among others. It has been observed that company provide services to more than 43 million people all around the world. Furthermore, it has also been noted that the company employs approximately 36,600 people across the globe. It has been seeking to improve its domination in the global market and in this regard the company is aiming to implement the BYOD program in their operations. It has been observed that this program is helpful in enhancing employee happiness as well as increasing productivity of the business. It has been learnt that BYOD (bring your own device) is a program that enables the employs of an organisation to bring individually owned phones, laptops as well as other electronic gadgets in the workplace. As part of the program, the employees of the organisation would also be allowed to use those personal owned gadgets in accessing information and application related to the operations of company. It has been observed that this program is used by many of the companies in order to enhance their employees’ satisfaction and productivity (AVIVA, 2013; Nelson, 2012). The essay would aim to illustrate about the benefits as well the risks associated with BYOD program in an organisation. The essay would further recommend to Aviva Plc for the implementation of BYOD in their operations. Moreover, the essay would also portray about how mobile devices enhance the productivity as well as the employee satisfaction of any business. Benefits and Challenges of BYOD Program There are various benefits as well as challenges that are associated with the implementation of BYOD program in any organisation. A few of them would be discussed below: Benefits Related to BYOD Program The first and the foremost benefit of implementing a BYOD program would be to avoid the cost of the devices. The management of a company would be no longer responsible for the cost related to the upfront cost of the device that is going to be used by the employees. The employees are the ones who are going to bear all the costs related to the utilisation of the devices. Apart from this, it has also been noticed that BYOD program is helpful in increasing the satisfaction of the employees in the organisations. It has been analysed that rather than being stuck in the issues related to information technology (IT), the workers have evidently enjoyed using the mobile devices that are already been known to them. Furthermore, the BYOD devices are more updated and advanced than the basic IT devices used in organisations. This helps organisations to get the maximum benefits out of the upgraded modern devices. Apparently, it has also been observed that the program of BYOD enhances productivity of organisations by a significant extent. Since organisations allow their employees to use their own devices which they are more familiar and comfortable with, they would be comfortably able to work in their desired environment which would ultimately increase the productivity of the business. Additionally, it has also been learnt that BYOD program is effective in lessening the stress on IT department of organisations and they could use this spare time on other issues related to the business. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that due to the BYOD program employees are more expected to work outside the office. Also, it has been assumed that the responsiveness of the employees towards their work would also increase considerably as the BYOD program would enable them to have a medium to communicate outside the office (Air Watch, 2012). Risk Related to BYOD Program Nevertheless, there are also certain challenges that the BYOD program faces which would not be fruitful for business. The most crucial in this regard would be the security concerns of organisations. When an employee attaches his/her personal devices on the network of the company, the overall security of the business would be at stake. As soon as an external device is connected to the system of any organisation, computer virus tends to migrate from the external device to the overall system of the organisation. In this process, valuable information of organisations which might include private information related to customers and stakeholders of the business would get transferred to the external device (i.e. the employee’s device). This aspect of BYOD program could be considered as negative. Apart from this, there are also issues related to privacy of companies with regard to crucial information of the business. Data of the organisation that are being carried on the devices of the employees would be at greater danger of getting leaked, which would ultimately affect the operations of the business. Moreover, there are also concerns about issues such as stolen mobile devices which would certainly result in the leakage of invaluable information of the business. Additionally, unhappy employees of companies could also distribute crucial information of the organisation to its competitors which would severely harm the operations of the organisation (Miller & et. al., 2012; Eschelbeck & Schwartzberg, 2012; ICO, 1998). Recommendations From the discussion, it has been noted that there are both positive as well as negative aspects in the implementation of BYOD in organisations. However, keeping in consideration the importance of the positive aspects of the program, it would be prudent to recommend AVIVA Plc to make implementation of the BYOD program in their operation. It has been observed that AVIVA Plc is one of the largest and most well known insurance companies in the world. The company would always desire to keep enhancing their performance in order to obtain the topmost position in the global business world. In order to continuously enhance its performance, the company would need to implement all the modern and advanced methods, technologies as well as practices in their business. In that regard, it would be worth mentioning that the BYOD program would be quite vital for the organisation. There are certain crucial and non-ignorable benefits of the program. According to this program, all the employees of the organisation would be allowed to bring their own devices like mobile, laptops, and tablets among others in the workplace and to use them for the organisational related work. This would increase the satisfaction of the employees of organisation in the workplace and would certainly lead to the deliverance of effective results. As AVIVA employs a large number of employees all over the world, it would be imperative for it to keep those members positively engaged as well as satisfied in their work so that they could be able to come with positive results for the business. There are several companies that have been engaged with the BYOD program. An example in this regard would be the implementation of the BYOD program in IBM. The company enables its workers to carry their own devices and access the email, calendar and contacts of the business. As a result of the implementation of the program, the company has witnessed immense success in more than 44 countries of its operations. The company also noticed an increase of 25% on the satisfaction of the employees which ultimately increased the productivity of the business of the company (Hawkins & et. al, 2012; Dunnet, 2012). Furthermore, it has also been recognised that Cisco has also implemented the BYOD program in their operations. The company has seen immense growth over the years after implementing BYOD. The company allows its employees to be able to work with their own devices and be self sufficient. This aspect keeps the employees intact with the functioning of the organisation and ultimately it has shown positive signs in its productivity. From the discussed examples, it could be learnt that the BYOD program is performing well in the organisations where it has been incorporated. With this consideration, it can be said that AVIVA would be benefited with the implementation of the BYOD program which in turn would enable it to attain the desired topmost position in the global arena (Cisco, 2012). However, AVIVA should also keep in mind that there are also certain issues or negative aspects that are being associated with the BYOD program. In this regard, concerns regarding the security and the privacy of the sensitive information of the company would be primary. It has been observed that there had been issues in certain companies of Australia that were involved in breaches relates to BYOD program. AVIVA should consider these aspects in mind before implementing the program in their organisation. The company needs to have policies that would be vital in investigating while there is any breach. The company should also have certain disciplinary actions if anyone is found guilty of misusing the organisational information. Furthermore, the company would need to check its software on a continuous basis so that it could help it to detect any kind of frauds in the organisation. Moreover, it should also take the consent of the employees with regard to accessing their personal data in accordance with the necessity of the organisation. AVIVA would also need to protect its confidential data so that unauthorised employees cannot access them (Kennedy, 2011; Citrix, 2011). Thus it would be imperative for the company to understand both the positive as well as the negative aspects of the program before implementing it in their business. However, it would be worth mentioning that according to an analysis, the BYOD program delivers 70% benefits to organisations and could be considered quite safe to be used in business (Dell, 2013; Schmidt, 2012). Benefits of Mobile Devices in Employee Satisfaction and Productivity in AVIVA Plc The benefits of the mobile devices to the organisations could not be ignored. It has been observed that the use of the mobile devices in the organisation to access the corporate data would train the users of the devices about security in a meaningful way (Caldwell, 2012). Moreover, using the mobile phones for the purpose of the company’s work would allow the employees of AVIVA Plc to balance their personal and professional life as using mobile devices for work would make it easier for them and would keep them satisfied. Using the mobile devices during their work would keep the employees of the company interested towards their work and would also increase the responsiveness of the employees which would in turn enable rapid decision making and resolving of internal issues. All these factors would certainly aid in increasing the productivity of the employees and would ultimately lead to increase in overall productivity of the business of AVIVA (Cisco, 2012; IBM, 2012). Conclusion From the overall analysis, it can be summarised that the BYOD program is quite effective in context of the modern day business where employee satisfaction and business productivity are key factors for the better performance of the business. It has been observed from the entire analysis that BYOD program provides a lot of advantages to the organisations. It is quite helpful in increasing employee satisfaction as well as productivity of the organisations. As this program is gaining a considerable amount of popularity amid the organisations in the modern day business, AVIVA can also be recommended to implement this program in their operations. However, because of certain negative issues associated with the BYOD program the company needs to consider certain pertinent measures as well as practices in order to deal with such issues and enable swift functioning of the organisation with fewer worries with regard to security and privacy of the secret and confidential data of the organisation. Therefore, overall, it can be concluded that the BYOD is a program that would evidently stay in trend for longer period of time, thus modern organisations need to leverage the maximum benefits out of this emerging phenomenon. References AVIVA, 2013. About us. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.aviva.com/about-us/ [Accessed April 13, 2013]. Air Watch, 2012. Enabling Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) In the Enterprise. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.ciosummits.com/media/solution_spotlight/byod-whitepaper.pdf [Accessed April 13, 2013]. Caldwell, T., 2012. Training – the Weakest Link. Computer Fraud and Security, pp. 8-14. Citrix, 2011. Delivering Corporate Data Securely On Employee iPad. Home. [Online] Available at: http://resources.idgenterprise.com/original/AST-0061373_iPad_Technical_Guide_US_WP.pdf [Accessed April 13, 2013]. Cisco, 2012. The Expanding Role of Mobility in the Workplace. Forrester Research Inc, pp. 1-9. Dunnet, R., 2012. Bring Your Own Device. Director Publication Ltd, pp. 55-59. Dell, 2013. Dell Unveils Global BYOD Survey Results: Embrace BYOD or Be Left Behind. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.dell.com/Learn/us/en/uscorp1/secure/2013-01-22-dell-software-byod-survey?c=us&l=en&s=corp [Accessed April 13, 2013]. Eschelbeck, G. & Schwartzberg, D., 2012. BYOD Risks and Rewards. A Sophos Whitepaper, pp. 1-7. Hawkins, N. & et. al, 2012. Bring Your Own Device & Consumerisation of IT. IBM Corporation, pp.1-23. IBM, 2012. Embraces Mobile Technologies for Business Computing. IBM Global Technology Services, pp. 1-4. ICO, 1998. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.ico.org.uk/news/latest_news/2013/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/ico_bring_your_own_device_byod_guidance.pdf [Accessed April 13, 2013]. Kennedy, G., 2011. Bring Your Own Device: Corporations Leading the Way by Mixing Work and Play. Computer Law & Security Review, Vol. 27, pp. 436-446. Miller, W. K. & et. al., 2012. BYOD: Security and Privacy Considerations. IEEE Computer Society, pp. 53-55. Nelson, D., 2012. BYOD. Internet at Schools, pp. 12-15. Schmidt, J., 2012. Not Your Parents’ Workplace Anymore – Managing the New Security Realities of BYOD. Security Magazine, pp. 25. Read More