A research commissioned by BT Global Services and Cisco has found that organisations need to boost network bandwidth to maximise bring your own device (BYOD) productivity.
Vanson Bourne carried out the research and surveyed 2,200 IT decision makers and office workers in medium to enterprise size organisations across 13 regions.
The survey found that exponential growth in the use of smart devices has led to significant and increased demand for bandwidth across 84% of organisations.
Of the surveyed, 56% of IT managers said they have also noticed a resulting performance decline in some applications, which impacts negatively the productivity gains promised by smart devices.
According to the survey, 46% of workers with Wi-Fi access in their office have experienced delays logging on or accessing an application, while 39% have noticed they are running more slowly now than before.
The research revealed that 76% believe their organisations need to take further steps to fulfil the potential productivity gains that smart devices offer.
In the survey, 84% said they think adopting a BYOD policy confers a competitive advantage and 26% of IT managers think that all workers understand their access requirements or permissions for their mobile devices.
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Cisco director of enterprise networks EMEAR Gordon Thomson said the company has implemented a BYOD model internally, starting with mobile phones in 2009, and managed to lower its costs per employee by 25%.
"Over the last few years, we have added 82 per cent more devices to our base with 28 per cent more users," Thomson said.
BT Global Services VP of global portfolio Neil Sutton said with networks creaking under the demands of smart devices, 76% of users convinced that their organisation needs to step up to the opportunity, it’s clear that enabling BYOD in its many forms is about much more than simply cool devices and a mobile contract.
"Organisations need to consider elements of device compatibility, security, Wi-Fi, network, application performance, with a focus on driving costs down," Sutton said.
