Ignore BYOD At Your Peril

Bring your own device (BYOD) is here. Not coming later, here now.

There has been much written about the consumerization of IT in the workplace, but in short, it refers to how the technology we use at home now drives how we want to work.

Our houses are full of smart devices - phones, tablets, laptops, and a myriad of other connected entertainment devices. We have a rich internet experience with online TV, gaming and the explosion of Music As A Service (think Spotify and Pandora) and Movies As A Service.  With such easy access to so much content at home consumers who, funnily enough, are also employees, are demanding more at work.  And the IT department is struggling to keep up.

How many of us have heard of, or experienced, executive magpies?  You know the people I mean;  the executives that pick up a new gadget duty-free while returning from a conference that, the next day, they want connected to their enterprise IT systems.  

With the explosion of BYOD, this is no longer limited to traveling executives.  It happens every day now as people expect to be able to use the technology they use at home, at work.  Every employee, customer, supplier, or partner of yours wants access to your systems on any device, at any time, from any location.  But, despite the exponential growth in BYOD, the real wave is building like a tsunami on the horizon. The next five years will see a whole new level of demand from your stakeholders. 

Why?  Because schools are leading the charge.  I was pleasantly surprised, and instantly awake when at the 2013 Wellington College open day the deputy principal made the following statement: "BYOD, "he said, "was the single biggest revolution in education - bigger than the introduction of the PC." 

Why is BYOD such a big deal in the classroom?  When a student has unfettered internet access on any device, anywhere they can find more information of a higher quality, more quickly.  They can visit discussion forums, find reference material and read opinion pieces.  They can ingest, digest and act on information in ways that we mere plebs will struggle to comprehend.

It is this push to have unlimited connectivity in the classroom that should serve as a huge wake-up call to businesses.

These kids are about to enter the workforce.  They are the grads you will be hiring in the next few months.  

And when you hire them they will demand a different, higher, level of service from your corporate services than the Gen-X or Gen-Y people you currently employ.  They will expect to have a wealth of information available, on-demand, at light speed.  They won’t delineate between internal and external systems.  To them it is just information – the source is not relevant.  

They will expect to work, collaborate and contribute at any time of the day, especially while sitting in boring Gen-X run meetings.  They will also expect to download a song or update a social media feed when it suits them.  They will expect real-time, frequent internal communication, and they will expect to be able to respond to it instantly.

Their connected worlds will blend into one. There won't be a work life and a personal life to balance, but rather just a life.  I life lived online.

And if you don’t allow them the access they crave on the device they desire you will lose them.  That could be a disaster for your business if it depends on hiring the best talent to fuel innovation and creativity.


BYOD is here now and if you are not prepared to take steps to harness the power it brings, your business could be just working out its notice.  Or worse still, it may already be dead.

Cheers!