MIS

22.09.15
GROUP 1
Case Study 03: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of BYOD
Case Summary

BYOD Bring Your Own Device allows "Anywhere" and "Anytime" access to computing tools, causing
increased employee satisfaction toward the company, productivity and time effectiveness through such
convenience. Yet, with the aforementioned benefits, there are number of difficult issues related to this
concept, especially when dealing with company’s information security leading to a vulnerable ground if not
properly dealt with.
The difficulties of BYOD concept are namely; device support, managing cost, and data and network
protection. With an increasingly greater variety of device types and operation systems, this requires a reasonable
amount of IT resources together with human resource involvement in order to tackle information security in non-
proprietary software and numerous networking platforms. To ensure this is possible, companies need to make effort
into keeping updated and adjust the procedure to be in conformance with changes in carriers, number, device
versions and types, while assuring the level of productivity.
In addition, the case also portrays the implementation of BYOD in two companies, namely; IBM and Intel.
While IBM did not successfully deploy BYOD is practice due to an unorganized controlling measures, Intel, with
emphasis on its people, managed it by developing multiple access and control levels for its registered devices,
alongside with several software and security tools to enhance the user satisfaction. In this comparison, a key
takeaway would be that any organizational change would only be successful with mutual efforts – the company and
its people.

Case Discussions

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employees to use their personal smart
phones for work?
 Advantages:
o Companies
a. Cost-saving: not responsible for the spending on employee’s smartphones, while
benefiting at the same level in comparison to them actually investing on the
smartphones for employees
o Employees
a. With anywhere and anytime access to corporate network increase level of
productivity and effectiveness
b. Feel comfortable to use their own devices
c. Feel convenient to carry only one device to work
 Disadvantages:
o Employee Performance and Productivity: Difficult to maintain since employees are involved
with various types of mobile devices and operating systems which is difficult to normalized
measures and hard to control over different systems. In addition, personal data and
business data are on the same mobile sometimes employee will focus on their personal
issues more than their work.
o Technical Support: linger more supporting teams and resources due to various types of
devices and operating platforms, this may include providing updates and bug fixes.
o Information Security: Company’s data and other valuable assets are vulnerable to a greater
deal of risks with mobility factor enhanced by smartphones in comparison with storing them
stationary at the company. Employees may install their personal Apps along with corporate
Apps which could trigger information leakage.
o Network Setup: to receive connection from all devices is complicated due to users may
change their devices, carriers, or even have their device lost or stolen.
 MIS
22.09.15
GROUP 1
2. What management, organization, and technology factors should be addressed when deciding
whether to allow employees to use their personal smart phones for work?

When deciding whether to allow employees to use their personal smartphones for work, the
following factors should be considered:

Management Factor:
Management needs to make sure of the applications on smartphones that should be:
 Compatible with the firm’s IT platform
 User-friendly
 Worthwhile for its value: whether the benefits justify the cost
To make the aforementioned possible, management needs to agree upon that software will be
developed based on a user-centric scheme, yet within the company’s constraints. The software
development team needs to be professed on ensuring that new applications and the software used
will be easy to use and monitored in order to be able to track upon productivity.

Organization Factor:
The organization needs to devise the followings:
 Develop a different policies which will cover all ranges for different mobile model and version in
order to maintain security of the company
 Implement an end-user service level agreement and policies to enable mutual consent on data
access and security awareness among the employees
 Develop network and IT support structure to support all users in the organization
 Develop inventory tracking system that keeps a record of the devices name, device location,
device activation status (whether it is still being used), and device software etc. stored as
database so that assistance can be dealt with in a timely manner

Technology Factor:
Technology-wise, the firm should focus on the followings:
 Corporate Data Protection: Using supplementary software to allow information to be wiped
from devices remotely when devices are stolen or tracked to be transmitting confidential
information elsewhere
 Data Accessibility: Each device must be equipped with certain level accessibility based on each
employee’s responsibilities within the organization

3. Compare the BYOD experiences of IBM and Intel. Why did BYOD at Intel work so well?

BYOD experiences of IBM

● Lacking Control over Devices: Software in employee’s devices are not controllable by the IT
Dept. at IBM, this means productivity and performance are difficult to track
● Has Control over Network: some security policy is imposed; the devices are only usable
when the network secures them. Moreover, public file transfers function is turned off.
● Lacking Cooperation from Employees: “Blissfully unaware” is the term describing the
employees’ attitude toward Security risks from popular applications. This means
confidential information can leak at any time through employees transferring information in
and between applications in their mobiles phones
 MIS
22.09.15
GROUP 1
BYOD experiences of Intel
● Employees are happier and more productive: The concept has helped Intel workers saved
about 5 million hours annually company-wide. They are happy because, they are more
comfortable using their own devices.
● Supporting Effort from IT Dept.: Intel developed internal "app store" with 40 proprietary
applications travel tools to help schedule a flight and conference room finders, which
actually caters to the processes at work, not forcing reality, but supplementing and serving
to what the workplace needs, showing the management’s concern and organizational
dedication to this implementation.

BYOD at Intel work so well because Intel’s company developed different policies, rules and access limits for
each type of devices such as smart phones, tablets, or laptop with multiple levels of control in place.

4. Allowing employees to use their own smart phones for work will save the company money. Do you
agree? Why or why not?

Allowing employees use their own smartphones for work, company saves money from being spent
on corporate’s own mobile devices. Without mobility, huge expenses are needed for transportation either
for meetings or minor discussions. However as mentioned in the case study, there are quite a few hidden
factors that are difficult to maintain.
The control of information security concerns the company’s most valuable assets. Whether the
company will benefit or not, this depends upon the management vision (to put effort on IT management
or not), organization and preparation (to allocate a team for technical support or not), and financial
justification (how much the company expects from return on this investment). If company is ready,
prepared, and have sufficient technical support for assisting their end-users, they will be able to manage
information security, thus; using BYOD will definitely save money for company to what extent – will
depend on the company’s financial expectation.