How do you feel about your BYOD policy?

[O9O9O9]

Hello all,

I'm a journalist for a news publication called Chief Mobility Officer, and I'm writing an article on BYOD in the enterprise. I'm looking for a few office employees that have a BYOD policy in their company (or don't) because I want to know the basics: Does your company have a BYOD policy? What is it? What do you love about it? What do you hate about it?

Any info would be helpful. If you're not comfortable sharing anything here, as far as where you work and such, please PM me and I'll offer my personal credentials and we can chat.

Thank you so much in advance!

 

[pm]

You are welcome to email me. I work for a company that has a BYOD policy which I use. My email address is in my profile here at Anandtech.

 

[Phokus]

IBM introduced a BYOD policy IIRC.

 

[O9O9O9]

pm, I just emailed you. Thank you so much for your help!

Phokus, thank you for the info!

 

[Rio Rebel]

I work for a large FDA-regulated company and have heard that we are going to a "BYOD" policy. I am very hesitant - I have never seen our company support the leading edge in any technology, and I don't want to be limited to devices that meet a rigid security standard or limit my choices.

 

[KentState]

I've worked in both types of environments. Back when policy enforcement on mobile devices was weak in Exchange we used Blackberries since BES provided security. The last two companies ran Exchange 2007 and 2010 they did BYOD. We were reimbursed $50-100 a month depending on how much your job required a phone. My current place has a lot of associates across the US and they provide phones. Some of us are allowed to get around the policy. Personally, I prefer to get my own phone. I have bad experiences with keeping my number or being limited on how I can use the device. They only thing I really give us is remote wipe if the company wanted to pull that on me.

 

[tommo123]

I work for a large FDA-regulated company and have heard that we are going to a "BYOD" policy. I am very hesitant - I have never seen our company support the leading edge in any technology, and I don't want to be limited to devices that meet a rigid security standard or limit my choices.

OT/kinda. what happens if you have a new phone and then this policy is introduced? i mean if they don't support your phone. are you expected to shell out for another phone just for work use?

 

[slag]

OT/kinda. what happens if you have a new phone and then this policy is introduced? i mean if they don't support your phone. are you expected to shell out for another phone just for work use?

Yes, at least in my case. While I had a phone I could use, my company required us to all have a personal phone and a plan that could accept enterprise paging and have coverage in our home area. For me, that meant I had to get an airrave (free from Sprint). Other, older people weren't so lucky and they had been using the business phone as their personal phone as well for many years. They had to go out and get a plan and phone that met the requirements. My company also reimburses us for texting (10 bucks/month), and voice service (30 bucks/month). We all turned in our work pagers or work cell phones, and now just have our personal phones. If we want, we can install Good Messaging to get work emails on our phones as well, but it is not a requirement.

 

[corkyg]

You will probably find that contractors dealing with classified defense data and projects will have rules already in place that are dictated by the Department of Defense (DoD). And, I would imagine that some non-defense companies might have different BYOD rules in sensitive areas such as R&D where industrial espionage is a real threat.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Have you seen this?
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/09/what-does-byod-mean-for-your-business/

 

[gorcorps]

Used to be able to sync my exchange to my personal device, but then some hacking group had some beef with somebody at the company so there was a bunch of hacking attempts. Now everything's on super lockdown and unless I give them permission to remote wipe my device at will, I can't even sync my caldendar anymore. It sucks

 

[tommo123]

Yes, at least in my case. While I had a phone I could use, my company required us to all have a personal phone and a plan that could accept enterprise paging and have coverage in our home area. For me, that meant I had to get an airrave (free from Sprint). Other, older people weren't so lucky and they had been using the business phone as their personal phone as well for many years. They had to go out and get a plan and phone that met the requirements. My company also reimburses us for texting (10 bucks/month), and voice service (30 bucks/month). We all turned in our work pagers or work cell phones, and now just have our personal phones. If we want, we can install Good Messaging to get work emails on our phones as well, but it is not a requirement.

that sucks. i'd end up with 2 phones i guess. 1 for me and 1 for them. 1 would get turned off friday at 5 and get turned on at 9am monday :whiste:

 

[mikegg]

Here ya go:

http://www.proofpoint.com/datasheet...of-IT-Security-and-Compliance-Survey-2011.pdf

 

[rh71]

IBM introduced a BYOD policy IIRC.

not as far as I know - or maybe a small group? I don't even know who was required to have a device for work. Was still all pagers for 24/7 support.

 

[O9O9O9]

KentState-

You'd be a perfect source for my article, since you have information on BYOD and non-BYOD environments. Would you mind if I sent you a few interview questions, and you could just fill them out and send them back? You can PM me and I'll give you my information, the blog info, etc.

 

[O9O9O9]

Rio Rebel-

I'd also be interested in your thoughts about your company adopting BYOD. Can you please PM me and I'll give you the info on my blog and ask a couple of questions? I'd really appreciate your help.

To everyone else, thank you for the articles, surveys and input! If there is anyone else here that works for a company with a BYOD policy (or will soon), please let me know and I'd love to have you as a source for the article!

 

[corkyg]

Just finished reading an article entitled "Bring Your Own Device to Work, - Is BYOD A Problem for Small Business?" This is on page 45 of the October issue of Smart Computing magazine. You can view it in the digital edition here on page 45: http://www.smartcomputing.com/

 

[the DRIZZLE]

The way my company's policy is set up, BYOD is basically mandatory except for the most senior level people. The problem is because of their need for high security, they require Good for Enterprise if you are using Android. I'm not willing to deal with all the crap that goes along with that, so I maintain a separate Blackberry for work that they pay for.

 

[pooldad]

I apologize if this is slightly off topic. My employer (state government) has allowed for many years its employees to access work email and calendars via MS ActiveSync on their compatible personal devices. I just received word that they will begin charging employees $30 per month to use their Enterprise active sync portal. I'm curious if anyone has heard of an employee being charged to access work emails / calendar. Also, does anyone know if there is substantial IT support needed to maintain the Enterprise ActiveSync portal - I just wondering what the $30/mo charge will go towards. Though we have no requirement to maintain a mobile device, this is a case of allowing access to allow staff to get accustom to it then implement an outrageous charge. I appreciate your feedback.

 

[mikegg]

I apologize if this is slightly off topic. My employer (state government) has allowed for many years its employees to access work email and calendars via MS ActiveSync on their compatible personal devices. I just received word that they will begin charging employees $30 per month to use their Enterprise active sync portal. I'm curious if anyone has heard of an employee being charged to access work emails / calendar. Also, does anyone know if there is substantial IT support needed to maintain the Enterprise ActiveSync portal - I just wondering what the $30/mo charge will go towards. Though we have no requirement to maintain a mobile device, this is a case of allowing access to allow staff to get accustom to it then implement an outrageous charge. I appreciate your feedback.

So your employer wants to make it costly and hard to access your work email? LOL @ the inefficiency of government organizations.

 

[Headcase_Fargone]

So your employer wants to make it costly and hard to access your work email? LOL @ the inefficiency of government organizations.

At least their job pays for their monthly service. Not all companies do that. I get reimbursed $0 for my cell phone which I'm required to have with me 24/7.

 

[pooldad]

To clarify... my employer does not pay anything for my cell service, but I'm also not required to have a cell for my job.