Companies encouraged to adopt flexible mobile device management policies

Monday, November 28, 2011

To help keep employees who bring their own devices into the workplace satisfied, business managers are encouraged to have a flexible, bring-your-own-device policy in place.

According to Dimension Data chief information officer Ian Jansen, a BYOD policy is necessary to balance evolving business needs.

"From a CIO perspective … it is ultimately about giving people the freedom to bring in their own devices, and experience this at work," Jansen explained in a recent interview with CIO. "There's a degree of loss of control as well as support access, software licencing, a policy covering a device and even processes."

Jansen added that IT employees have indicated they wish to have the freedom of choosing which devices they can bring into the office. In fact, some prospective workers have broached the subject in the interview process for Dimension Data.

To address the increased adoption of smarpthones, tablets and other devices, research firm Gartner recently announced it expects new mobile device management strategies to focus on control-oriented policies to increase security, service and support.