According to a study by Dell, those employees who are allowed to BYOD (bring your own device) to the office are more productive than those given a standard corporate phone.
Roger Bjork, director of marketing for Dell Enterprise Mobility Solutions, told me, "According to our study, employees doing BYOD are doing 240 hours more work per year than those who do not – that’s significant; it’s 12.5% more productive. This isn’t just about having a shiny device in your pocket any more."
Bjork said those polled who are able to use their device of choice tend to have them about their person more than those given standard corporate phones, explaining the extra hours ‘worked’.
Bjork’s comments came as Dell has just announced the Dell Kace K3000, a mobile management appliance that helps tol enforce security policies for both corporate and personal mobile devices running on iOS and Android operating systems. Bjork said there are no definitive plans to support BlackBerry but that it has other tools in its armoury already able to help manage Windows devices.
The K3000 will enforce security policies for both corporate and personal mobile devices running on iOS and Android operating systems. Through integration with the K1000 IT managers get a single pane of glass to accurately track, monitor and manage desktops, laptops, servers and mobile devices.
Bjork said more and more companies are allowing or encouraging BYOD, especially in the US. He agreed that the first step on any BYOD initiative is to set a clear policy as to who is responsible for the device and the data on it, and what happens if the device is lost or stolen.
Meanwhile, asked whether the plan is to integrate the Kace management capabilities with the SaaS systems management smarts from the acquired Quest business, Bjork said, "That’s definitely the trend. The task is to make sure that one add one equals three."
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The K3000 is seeing a staggered release schedule: a virtual appliance will be released in January, and it will be launched as a physical appliance in March. Bjork said the ability to manage both PCs and mobile devices from a single console has been among the most-asked-for requests from Dell’s enterprise customers.
