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Q7 What Are the Challenges of Personal Mobile Devices at Work? 145

As that occurs, professionals who can thrive in a dynamic environment with little need for
direct supervision will find that they can work both where and when they want, at least a good
part of the time. Once you’re always on and remote, it doesn’t matter if you’re always on in New
Jersey or at a ski area in Vermont. New lifestyle choices become possible for such workers.
These mobile workers can work where they want and for whom they want. There won’t
be a boss looking over their shoulder. They can work multiple jobs with different companies
at the same time! Companies may have to change the way they pay workers. Instead of pay-
ing employees by the hour, they would need to focus more on paying for productivity. This
shift toward focusing on performance will empower great employees and make it harder for
slackers to hide out in an organization. Companies will benefit from mobile workers too. They
won’t need as much expensive commercial office space. What an incredible time to be starting
a business career!

Q7 What Are the Challenges of Personal Mobile
Devices at Work?

Protecting company computers So far, we’ve focused on mobile applications that organizations create for their custom-
and software from viruses is ers and others to use. In this question we will address the use of mobile systems within
essential to corporate success. organizations.
Read the Security Guide on pages In truth, organizations today have a love/hate relationship with their employees’ use of
150–151 to learn about one of
the most virulent technological their own mobile devices at work. They love the cost-saving possibility of having employees buy
threats. their own hardware, but they hate the increased vulnerability and loss of control. The result, at
least today, is a wide array of organizational attitudes.
Consider a recent Gartner report that estimates by 2016, nearly 38 percent of companies
33
will stop providing devices to their workers altogether. You’ll have to bring your own device.
David Willis, a senior analyst at Gartner, notes, “BYOD strategies are the most radical change to
34
the economics and the culture of client computing in business in decades.” Yet only 43 percent
of all organizations have created an official mobile-use policy. 35

Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Use
of Mobile Systems at Work

Figure 4-23 summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of employee use of mobile sys-
tems at work. Advantages include the cost savings just mentioned as well as greater employee
satisfaction of using devices that they chose according to their own preferences rather than
organization-supplied PCs. Because employees are already using these devices for their own
purposes, they need less training and can be more productive. All of this means reduced sup-
port costs.
On the other hand, employee use of mobile devices has significant disadvantages. First,
there is the real danger of lost or damaged data. When data is brought into employee-owned
computing devices, the organization loses control over where it goes or what happens to it. In
May 2012, IBM disallowed the use of Apple’s voice searching application, Siri, on employees’
36
mobile devices for just that reason. Also, if an employee loses his or her device, the data goes

33 David Willis, “Bring Your Own Device: The Facts and the Future,” Gartner Inc., April 11, 2013.
34 Ibid.
35
“CDH,” accessed July 15, 2013, www.cdh.com.
36 Robert McMillan, “IBM Worries iPhone’s Siri Has Loose Lips,” last modified May 24, 2012, www.cnn.com/
2012/05/23/tech/mobile/ibm-siri-ban/index.html?iphoneemail.