Jupiter Research just released a report that predicts the number of employees bringing their own devices to work (BYOD) will more than double by 2014. And as reported in this article, it is rapidly becoming a “security nightmare”.

In retail, it seems to me that BYOD will become inevitable – employees on the sales floor need mobile devices to keep up with consumers, those devices are expensive to deploy and maintain and risk walking out the door anyway with the high turnover experienced in retail sales, and there is definitely something of a perk to allowing employees to have their own devices with them while they’re working (which of course comes with its own downside).

When it comes to this kind of investment, retailers have historically been very penny-pinching, and the idea of investing six or seven digits into security and device management software vs. seven or eight digits into hardware is a business case that is pretty tough to beat.

However, when RetailWire put the question to debate among its BrainTrust panelists, I was surprised to see how much this exact same attitude has already pervaded the tech side of the retail world. And not just for mobile phones for employees, but even corporate laptops. Is BYOD inevitable? Read on to find out…

RetailWire Discussion: Happiness Is … Bringing Your Own Computer Devices to Work

By Bernice Hurst, Contributing Editor, RetailWire

Online business community Entrepreneur Country claims “it’s surprising how something apparently as simple as allowing staff to bring their own computer devices (BYOD) to use at work can boost employee morale.”

That comes from a piece was written by Charles Black, chief executive of cloud computing firm Nasstar, one of Entrepreneur Country’s partners. Based on its own poll of 300 bosses of small and medium sized businesses, Mr. Black wrote, “Three quarters of bosses in our sample told us that by allowing their staff to use their own smart phones, laptops or tablets in the workplace positioned their firms as ‘flexible and attractive employers.'” In addition, “Around two thirds of SME chiefs told us they already allowed their staff to use their own devices for work purposes. … The same number said they had written policies in place for staff wishing to use their own devices at work.”

The BYOD debate was also aired on the TechRepublic site where two CIOs explained their thinking.

Paul Green, director of business information solutions at Sheffield City Council told said, “The best device — when considered in light of factors such as integration with back-end systems, information sharing and security — may or may not be a consumer one.”

Support, tax and licensing liabilities as well as responsibility, security, maintenance and management issues need to be considered. Mr Green concludes that before implementing BYOD, IT departments should “first consider how they can make the computing experience better for staff.”

Jos Creese, Hampshire County Council CIO, told TechRepublic, “You don’t resist inevitable IT trends, whether they are cloud, BYOD, social networking — you find a way of harnessing them and using them to allow the organisation to do what it needs to do.”

This, according to Mr. Creese applies to everything from staff using their iPhones and iPads at work to looking for the best options to work flexibly as a means to increasing productivity. Encouraging choice between personal and corporate issued devices keeps BYOD manageable. “It’s absolutely essential that IT is seen as an enabler of business change and improvement, not a barrier to it,” he said.

Discussion Questions: Do you think companies would be helped or hurt by allowing staff to bring their own computing devices to work? Are you for or against workers using their own devices to perform work while at home? 

RetailWire BrainTrust comments:

For retailers, in many ways this is borderline Utopian.

As long as they can manage the security issues, and there are companies willing to do that now, they get to serve up information to devices they have no responsibility for. Educated employee, virtually cost-free.

I see NO downside.

Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner, RSR Research

There is a difference between bringing the personal devices to work and using them for work. Even if employees are issued a company phone they are going to bring their own cell phone to work with them (unless they are specifically prohibited from doing so). The issue becomes what the device they are to use for work will be.

I expect most employers are going to be far more willing to allow employees to use their personal cell phone for work (and vice versa) than they are tablets or laptops. The issues of connecting iPhones, etc. to email exchange servers are now resolved and there is a comfort that the information is correct and secure.

Not sure the same is true for laptops. I think the big concern is what is on it when it comes to work and what is on it when it leaves. True, the USB storage drives are up to 128 GB so if a dishonest employee wants data they can take it with them, but I believe there is more danger in the information getting lost when someone’s laptop is stolen. The information is backed up on the server or in the cloud, but I for one would feel better about the data’s security knowing it is not on the employee’s laptop.

Steve Montgomery, President, b2b Solutions, LLC

It may be time to rethink the office computer. Businesses want control and security over computers, but this forces employees to purchase their own computer. When they work from home, many use their own computer. As the world moves to the cloud, we have new options. While computer manufacturers will not like this, business should consider giving employees computers as a perk. They can set up security and office links. Maybe business should provide a dollar allowance every three years. The employee can then purchase what matches their needs. The cloud plus segmented security should protect the business.

W. Frank Dell II, CMC, President, Dellmart & Company

Many challenges if the device is going to be able to access corporate information. Security, supporting multiple platforms, difficulty accessing information from legacy systems, and mixing business operations with personal issues are a few. The retailer needs to understand the total cost of BYOD and the business implications before choosing a path forward.

Larry Negrich, Retail Business Solutions Consultant, Avnet Technology Solutions

Trust in employees drives employee loyalty. And that loyalty can manifest itself in very profitable ways. The first step is to encourage telecommuting. My company has been doing that since the 1980s. People tend to put far more hours into work at home, at all hours of the day and night, than they do when having to travel to an office.

Similarly, not just allowing but encouraging utilization of personal devices tends to enhance productivity in that, today, many consumers own far more powerful devices than the ones their employers provide. Why shouldn’t an employer leverage their employees’ superior device capabilities for business purposes?

Ralph Jacobson, Global Consumer Products Industry Marketing Executive, IBM

One Millennial who lives in my house, an avid IOS user, rebelled when issued a standard-order Wintel PC. BYOD could well be the order of the day, assuming that retailers get off the dime and beef up security.

Cathy Hotka, Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates

I’m for workers using their own devices at work. It is another way to boost morale and productivity. Everyone has their own nuances of likes and dislikes from a technology standpoint, and it will remove one more complaint from the workplace — ‘My laptop is so slow/heavy/ugly/fill in the blank….’

Concerns would be security, support, and getting access to propriety systems.

Robert DiPietro, VP Product Services, Affinion Group

This issue can be summarized as a tug-of-war between corporate security and IT support needs, and personal flexibility/productivity. While using one’s own device can certainly compromise security if not correctly administered, and can also create extra support issues, at the same time it allows employees to work in a way that is more efficient for their personal needs (and not to mention perhaps with more updated technology than the corporate-issued devices).

Brian Numainville, Principal, The Retail Feedback Group

I’m all for flexibility. As someone who has worked from home for 7 years now, 2 for a company with a corporate office and 5 where my home IS my corporate office, I can attest that it’s not so much about work/life balance as it is about work/life integration. As long as the expectation works both ways — if I give you the convenience of handling some work things on your own device at home, in return I will cut you some slack to handle home things at work — then I think the security issues are already well on their way to being managed.

The only place where this might not work so easily in retail would be the store. There, employees need to be focused on the customer. And while it’s true that there are sometimes down times, I’ve found that employees whose downtime gets interrupted by customers aren’t as customer-focused as they ought to be. So there’s a greater risk that ‘personal’ gets abused in the store. But on the flip side, we may find store employees increasingly asked to participate digitally — which means maybe asking them to participate from home. And if you expect employees to participate from home, then you’d better be prepared to give a little on home life intruding at work. Or you’ll need to pay more to compensate.

Nikki Baird, Managing Partner, RSR Research

This is a questionable position, since corporate security is usually compromised with locally owned, controlled and operated devices. The company has an obligation to provide its workers with the right tools and training to ensure that they can be productive at their positions. By asking the worker to bring their own ‘computing devices’ the company not only compromises corporate security, but also communications and even productivity. Many individuals cannot afford to provide the products needed to work effectively, let alone securely. This is the responsibility of the company, not the individual.

Kai Clarke, President, Miraclebeam Products, Inc.

I think it might be helpful to look at this issue from the perspective of some existing practices in field force automation.

In some parts of the world, field merchandisers routinely use their own mobile devices for direct sales, delivery and reordering tasks. The employer installs a secure third-party app that enables the process along with some necessary security and technical support. When an associate leaves the company, the app and any proprietary data can be remotely scrubbed from the device.

Why not apply a similar model in the retail environment? Many staffers already carry smart devices that have sufficient power to run a proprietary app. Most crucial data can be stored in the cloud, not the device (like Facebook and Twitter already do). The deal might include an allowance toward the monthly mobile bill or data plan.

Retail employers would stop making capital investments in hardware that is obsolete on arrival. Employees would arrive largely pre-trained on use of their own devices, and they would have a built-in incentive to take care of the equipment.

James Tenser, Principal, VSN Strategies

Read the entire RetailWire discussion:

http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/16188

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