Mobile app developers [x]cube LABS put together this infographical snapshot of mobility adoption in the enterprise workforce.
It gives a good global overview of the types of mobile workers, their devices and preferences.
Apparently, younger employees prefer the Apple and Android smartphones, while older employees prefer BlackBerrys. True?
Check out the infographic below, and let us know what you think.
This is what tablet adoption looks like - to me, at least: it starts with fanboys, queueing outside in the rain; it gets handed down to parents (who bug its original owners with support queries!); we want to take ours into work; the IT department resists, then finally caves in.
We’re not quite there yet. We’re stuck at stage 2, helping our parents with their iPad-me-downs. But, don’t get me wrong, the tablet is making its way into the workplace, whether enterprise-issued or as part of a “Bring your own device” policy.
This infographic shows what’s happened so far and the trends that’ll encourage tablet adoption in enterprise in the coming years.
The Year of the Enterprise Tablet
Infographic by Vertic via Techi.com
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Employees using their own devices (smart phones, tablets, PCs) are able to use the technology they’re most comfortable with—which has a positive impact on productivity. But as anyone in IT can tell you, this has risks. To address those, some organizations are creating BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that establish guidelines for proper use. Last month, Kyle Lagunas of Software Advice launched a survey to get a pulse on what companies are doing to manage employee-owned mobile devices.
Kyle’s share a few highlights with us here. You can find the full report of his findings on his blog.
Fact: Employees Are Already Using Their Own Devices for Work
The question many business leaders are asking their HR partners is: “Do we need a formal policy for managing mobile devices?” This is not an easy question to address, as it requires perspective on what employees are doing with their mobile devices. To that end, we asked a couple of questions around usage.
Figure 1: Ownership of devices employees use for work-related purposes.
The most important question when discussing BYOD, of course, is whether or not people are even using their personal devices for work-related purposes. As shown in Figure 1, the majority of employees (77%) are using their own devices to some extent—either exclusively or in addition to company-issued devices—to do work. Of course, “work-related purposes” could be something as simple as checking their email. So we wanted to gauge what else they’re doing.
Figure 2: Employee uses of mobile devices.
According to our respondents, employees are using mobile devices at a roughly equivalent frequency for personal and business use. As shown in Figure 2 above, 67% of employees are using devices for business correspondence (email, phone calls, etc.), and 44% are using their device—company-owned or not—for professional networking.
Whenever employees are using mobile devices to access company data (48%), one would think a policy with guidelines for proper use is a must. However, another survey question revealed that only 30% of respondents’ companies had a policy for managing personal mobile devices in place. Is there a disconnect here? Survey says… Quite possibly.
Will BYOD Become a Higher Priority?
Considering the majority of employees are already using personal devices for work-related purposes, we were surprised that only 12% of organizations without a BYOD policy plan to adopt one in the near future (half of those are currently developing policies). 30% of participants without BYOD policies said that instituting one wasn’t a priority, 33% plan to modify their plans for managing use of personal mobile devices in 2012.
Security risks associated with BYOD policies continue to intimidate some—one respondent said he is “scared to death of security vulnerabilities”—but what would do more to minimize risks than to adopt an official policy? Are organizations better served by addressing issues as they arise? Or should leadership elevate mobile device policy as a priority for 2012?
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I must be the only person in the world reviewing Cisco’s Cius tablet the day after Apple announced its new iPad.
But comparisons to Apple’s wunderkind are unhelpful when discussing the Cius, which is an Android tablet designed specifically for enterprise.
IT managers, not fanboys, welcomed its arrival last summer. And I’ve had some time to play with it myself. Here’s what I thought,
San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug
What’s interesting to me about the Cisco Cius tablet is what is says about the changing nature of enterprise - and different approaches to it.
Its emphasis on visual communication, with its front and back-facing cameras, its video hardware acceleration and seamless video conferencing, acknowledges that today’s workers are scattered and crave face time. Opportunities to launch video calls appear across the core Cisco apps: Unified Inbox, Phone, Chat, Email, Calendar and Contacts.
These custom apps form part of a unified communications system that allows you to jump quickly from chat to email to phone, and control interruptions; so you can, for example, redirect calls if you’re in a do-not-disturb state.
Other apps are available in the Android Market, but users will have to hope that their IT manager allows them that kind of access: the Cius is designed with security in mind, and by default only allows installs from App HQ, Cisco’s tightly controlled and vetted app store. This isn’t a device to play Angry Birds on in your downtime.
When back at the office, the Cius docks into a (sold-separately) base-station, complete with phone handset and ports for a keyboard and mouse. But it won’t replace your desktop - not with its 7-inch screen. The Cius is made for mobile, and with its removable battery it addresses a big concern for mobile workers: and that’s powerless downtime.
The Cius is no iPad, and Cisco are fine with that. IT managers are delighted too. It gives them remote control over its usage, including game downloads and web browsing; it allows custom-designed apps, and integrates with an existing Cisco ecosystem and workflow.
But for workers in 2012, in a prosumer age of freedom of choice, of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) - the Cius is a curious and controlling concoction of old-fashioned thinking, new technology, and an IT department’s vision of the future. But for everyone else, is it 10 years too late?
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Smart phones, tablets, laptops: the consumerisation of IT continues to impact the way employees use technology at work.
Many organisations are shifting away from company-issued devices and adoption BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, which allow employees to use the mobile technology they’re most familiar with.
There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the benefits of BYOD in an increasingly mobile workforce, but little discussion around the policies needed to establish rules and guidelines for usage.
The Software Advice website has put together a survey about “bring your own device” policies in growing businesses, and would like your input! Take the BYOD survey here - and we’ll share the results on our blog in March.
Photo credit: RSNY@DESIGNCOLLECTOR
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Since its launch in January 2010, the iPad has become part of daily life for up to 60m users worldwide. According to a recent survey of US consumers, most of those iPads have never left the home or ventured much further than the living room. However, a new survey suggests that IT and business professionals use iPads very differently.
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The iPad for Business Survey was carried out by IDG Connect, part of the International Data Group tech media company. The results are not only beautifully presented (you can download the white paper here) but offer a fascinating insight into the iPad as a critical device for the mobile professional.
Here are 5 things we took away from the results of the iPad for Business Survey:
Do you use an iPad for work? Do you use it on the move? What are its killer applications? And do you agree that the iPad is better suited for consumption rather than creation?
San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug
Photo credit: Brendan Lynch
Preparing to take my business on the road was one the most exciting and confusing times in my career. When I decided to leave my office in Austin, TX last August I had no idea what awaited me in Europe and Asia Pacific. Regardless of my own questions, I still had to get my team on board, find a location and pack my digital tool belt.
Cora Rodenbusch (@corasauras) is a senior communications manager at PGi (@PGiMeetTweet), a virtual meetings company, providing audio, web and video conferencing solutions to over 75% of Fortune 100.
Straight from my 6 months as a Digital Nomad, below are three steps to taking your show on the road.
Step 1: Get Your Key Stakeholders On Board.
Put yourself in your boss’s shoes and pitch accordingly. Most likely your boss is asking him/herself three questions: Can you do your job outside the office? Could you actually do it better? Will it make you a happier, more satisfied worker?
Talk to those points, making your pitch as practical as possible. Share your story, be personal, but leave the emotions aside. And most importantly, make sure you’ve fully thought through your plan. Come with all the details such as office hours, cost ownership and accountability, but only speak to them if you feel your stakeholders are ready to hear them.
For more support check out a recent GreenBlog.PGi.com post on Making a Case for Teleworking.
Once you have been given the green light, bust out the champagne, celebrate and calmly proceed to step 2.
Step 2: Scout Out a Location
Whether you’re planning on working from home, the coffee shop or a remote island, make sure the internet connectivity is VoIP quality, its quiet enough to take a conference call and you can afford it. Once you’ve found a location that meets this criteria, see if it’s laptop-worker-friendly and if you enjoy being there.
Step 3: Pack Your Bag
Before you step out the door, make sure your bag is packed. When your office is mobile, it’s best to pack light, so make sure your tools work extra hard. When evaluating a new tool for my digital tool belt, I always ask, is it mobile? Is it global? And most importantly is it social, does it have that human element?
Bon voyage fellow teleworker! Don’t miss next week’s Part III of the Digital Nomad 101: Your Guide to Working Outside the Office to find out how to make your teleworking experience a success.
What would you add to your digital tool belt?
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(Ed. note: We’re having a bit of a ‘freelancers focus’ this January for those of who whose New Years’ Resolution is to become your own boss! If you do it, make sure you’ve got the essentials in place. You may want to think about insurance, as this guest post from Vicky Pont of PolicyBee points out.)
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So you’re out on the road, living the life of a mobile worker. That’s all well and good, but what about the hazards you might encounter along the way – is it best to think about insuring yourself against them and their consequences?
Let’s not underestimate the dangers. There are cups of coffee just waiting to tip themselves onto our keyboards; phones and laptops keen to crash to the hard stone floor; light-fingered folk only too keen to help themselves to our belongings, and clumsy passers by ready to catch their foot and trip on the straps of our bags.
Many of us make the mistake of simply thinking about the value of the hardware we carry around: the laptop, and maybe the mobile phone. Often, mobile phone shops offer you an insurance policy. But that may be limited to a slow replacement or repair service – not exactly ideal if your business activities rely on being contactable at all times.
And it’s the same with your IT equipment. It may be covered under your household insurance - and that might be something you checked when you took out the policy. But a domestic insurance policy will only typically cover you for replacement of lost or damaged hardware, it’s not going to compensate you for the loss of important business data, nor the time lost as you get yourself up and running again.
Portables insurance
So, the best way to make sure you’re covered is to get yourself some proper, portable business equipment insurance. That way, you can rest assured that the bits and pieces you take out and about are protected against the triple potential threats of loss, damage and theft.
Public liability insurance
Depending on where you are temporarily holed up, it might be advisable to have a public liability insurance policy in place. This will cover you against a claim, in the unlikely event that you can be deemed to have caused an accident – as in the example with the bag strap above. On private property such as in a serviced office or a coffee shop, the owner will normally be liable for incidents that take place on their premises.
Professional indemnity insurance
Finally, as a responsible flexible worker you should consider protecting yourself with a professional indemnity insurance policy. This covers you if your work doesn’t meet with the client’s expectations. The policy is a cheap down payment against the legal costs of defending a claim against you. Indemnity insurance can handle the dispute, defending your reputation and covering any consequential losses, if they can be proved.
PolicyBee (@PolicyBee) is an online business insurance broker for UK freelancers, consultants and small consultancies. Find out more at www.policybee.co.uk
Photo credit: ul_Marga
This infographic from iPass, based on findings from their Mobile Workforce Report, shows how enterprise is going crazy for mobile technology.
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But there are pros and cons.
The iPass survey revealed that mobile workers put in 240 more hours a year than non-mobile employees. One in four mobile employees sleep less than six hours a night with one in three claiming less sleep because of work. 60 percent also blame work for not getting as much exercise as they should.
Check out the infographic below and let us know what you think.
Are mobile workers really working hard or hardly working?
Enterprise mobility services provider iPass has published the results of a global mobile workforce survey and - if you needed proof - it shows, overwhelmingly, that enterprise is going mobile.
You can read the full report on the iPass website. We’ve pulled out some highlights that we thought might interest you and make you think about the way you work.
San Sharma (@WorkSnugSan) is community manager at WorkSnug
Mobilemania Sweeps the Enterprise
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Photo credit: Holger Eilhard
