Not Adams Smith, Tocqueville, or even Milton Friedman himself could have predicted how electronic consumerism would transform the workplace.
The affordability of smart devices has made them an invaluable part of the employee repertoire. The number of people with smartphones will only increase. For this reason, the concept of "bring your own device" (BYOD) is causing every type of business to do some restructuring for the sake of security.
Computers or smart devices facilitate the work of most jobs, but a few professions have evolved completely alongside this technology. Engineers must work with computers to design, research, and have access to vital systems information at all times in order to verify worker safety, maintenance, and find solutions to problems in a timely manner. Undoubtedly, the practice of engineering itself will evolve with the development of BYOD as companies look to become self-sufficient.
The trend is clear. The consulting firm Ovum surveyed 4,000 full-time employees and found that 70 percent use their own smart devices to access corporate information. The enterprise WiFi access firm, iPass, also reported that out of 1,200 enterprise workers surveyed around the world, one third are continuously using their devices year-round, using personal services like Skype, etc, to make conference calls and access data. The report by iPass, the Mobile Workforce, said this ever-present connection translates to an additional 20 hours of work being done for free by employees.
The fact that employees never disconnect their devices is where the extra time is picked up. MW stated the 92 percent of people who remain online afterhours and on vacation are "content... [with] the job flexibility." In fact, their survey found people would like even greater freedom in the workplace. A study by Fortinet, of workers in their 20s, also discovered that this generation is willing to fight for using their smart devices at work, something they see as a right and not a privilege.
Privacy and security are the main concerns with the BYOD movement. These studies have also exposed that IT departments are ineffective, oblivious, or simply ignoring the fact that all these extra network connections pose a security risk for malware infecting their systems or data being lost or stolen. But, BYOD helps the bottom line (profit) and is so well received by workers that others are calling for IT departments to simply focus on developing adequate strategies and policies that promote each business's goals and offer interoperability between devices instead of policing workers. Furthermore, the BYOD trend is helping some businesses expand as they launch services and products to assess and secure companies' networks.
Antivirus developer Symantec is offering the App Center Ready Program to help developers build trusted apps specifically for their business. Their Mobility Solution Specialization Program is available to oversee networks as well as single mobile devices, and manages their applications and provides mobile security.
The company Syncplicity is also offering Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools for IT administrators in case of lost or stolen devices. In these events, Syncplicity services can instantly and remotely wipe the entire memory of a device or simply the files of interest.
Force 3 is another company providing services to help BYOD adoption. They offer complete network and security assessments, Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and collaboration workshops, real-time end-point discovery or intelligence of connected devices, gap analysis, high level roadmaps, and asset discovery reports.
Nice article, Cabe. There are a couple other aspects to this story that's I've seen anecdotally. For one, these devices let employees bring their own workspace. I expect more and more people will use these devices to work from home. Another thing I've seen is people are using their personal devices for work rather than using the devices handed out by IT. Many people would rather use their personal iPhone for work rather than using the company Blackberry.
Freedom from I.T. snooping, activity tracking, and control of work resources drive this trend. Like I said, my colleagues and friends all have gone down this route. Only using the work computer for things like email and file storage. Of course, some backlash will be felt. Banning use of cell phones. Perhaps even using a cell phone jammer (though they may be illegal now).
Only real downside is, what if your personal system gets broken or stolen along its lifetime. All one's unbackuped work will be lost. I imagine their job would soon follow suit.
Good point on the dangers, Cabe. I guess the answer to that is keeping all of the file storage in the cloud. In many cases I've seen, the employee has alerted IT that they're using a personal phone.
I just finished reading an article in WIRED about password security. If you consider this trend of personal devices at work combined with the general lack of security provided by password protection - it seems likely there will be more and more hacker issues arising in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to see some rather draconian protections put in place by companies as backlash. Great article by the way. You touched on a very relevant and timely workplace issue.
I agree, Scott. This is a big issue. There are some professional hackers out there who can get though just about any security wall. Another problem is with disgrountled employees who know the system.
The division between one's personal existance and one's employment existance is a challenge indeed. Keeping personal separated from work, in my case, was helped a lot by the published management policy that everything done on company equipment was company property and not private at all. So when I chose to do work at home it was done on my computer and then transferred to the company system by removable media, which assured me that my system was kept separate from corperate examination. No, it was not quite as convenient as other methods, but good security is seldom as easy as ineffective security. We all need to remember that fact.
What always bugs me about "the cloud" is the fact that the cloud is still just computers somewhere remote. Systems that can fail, lose data. Some I.T. guy could spill a mountain dew on some harddrives, and there goes your mountain of work and files.
It reminds me of about 10 years ago when the Microsoft Hotmail servers went down, and a huge majority of people lost all their emails. This included me. I lost all the exchanges I had with a girl I just met at the time, who is now my wife. The loss has shaken my trust in the cloud.
The cloud is great for portability, but I wouldn't rely completely on it.
I agree with your point that it is very challenging now to separate one's personal life from one's employment existance. As we carry our computer devices around when we travel, time is spent doing both work and personal business on the same device. One of my co-worker solves this problem by carrying around one smart phone for work and one smart phone for personal business (which can be cumbersome).
Interesting timing on this article. There was a discussion at my company about this very issue. IT (and maybe Legal?) won't allow it for fear that company documents will be available on non-company-controlled devices and so can "disappear" when the person moves on.
For those concerned about privacy (and I'm thinking about those looking for their next career move rather than nefarious activity), I would be concerned that if the company needed to have specific software on your personal device for security purposes, that they would still have the ability to check. It would just be more difficult for the user to mentally disconnect.
The biggest problem I've seen with company owned devices is for those caught in a downsizing. I knew a number of individuals who given their walking papers and asked for their phone...with all their business contacts who could help in their new job search.
I found your comment "I even use my own oscilloscope, data logger, and soldering station. Times are changing. The consumer world and the corporate business structure are inevitably merging" interesting - I agree, the trend is not limited to Smart devices. I can't count the number of times I have used my own equipment because I didn't want to wait the week it would take for the P.O. to get approved or it was a one shot deal and so rather than incur the expense on the company when I already owned the needed equipment, I used my own o'scope, or function generator, or soldering iron, or whatever...
I have my own machine shop at home, which I have used for my day job. I thought it was a fair trade to go home early and make parts in my shop.
That was until one day, I ran my mill outside its work envelope. I immediately destroyed my servo motors and drivers. That was two months ago. I just received parts to fix it. It's going to cost me quite a bit to get back up to speed in both time and cash.
So, it is not always beneficial to use your own equipment on the job.
Ouch - Sorry that happened! Good point. Since you were at home using your own shop equipment, I bet you wouldn't be covered if you hurt yourself either. Sometimes the quickest solution is not always the best...probably not a big issue with test and measurement equipment but then I could also see someone not trained trying to use something of mine and frying it...hmmm...
My situation is a mirror-image of most of the scenarios posted; being an independent product design consultant, I have all of my own equipment and I either carry it to a client job site or I work remotely on client business in my home office. So, while all the equipment I use is of my own choosing, its the cost of doing business. Pros & Cons; You get what you want, but your pay for it.
I agree Jim - that is a definite advantage to me also. I can choose the tools of my trade when I go that route - I don't have to try to convince management to buy a particular software package for example. I used to do contract work writing test and measurement software for hardware test systems and often the customer just wanted a turn key system - they didn't care how I arrived at the final product as long as it could test to their specifications and meet their budget. It was really nice to use my own stuff that I was already very familiar with - often I could write lots of preliminary code in demo mode at home and then bring it on site to connect to the HW for debug.
Yes, if your client is "results driven", it allows a lot of freedom. I use the metaphor of the carpenter's hammer if people question the tools I use. "Are you concerned that the roof lasts 30 years and doesn't leak, or are you concerned that the hammer was a Stanley -vs- a Craftsman?"
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