By Eleanor Reader
Employees in fast-growth, developing nations are more open to embracing the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend than those in developed nations, according to a report from Ovum.
The report, commissioned by international IT solutions and managed service provider Logicalis, studied 17 markets across the globe.
It was found that 79 per cent of respondents in emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia and India, use their personal device to access corporate data, versus 54 per cent in mature markets, including Japan, Australia, France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States.
Richard Absalom, consumer impact IT analyst from Ovum, said employees in emerging economies are demonstrating a more flexible attitude to working hours and are happy to use their own devices for work.
“In mature markets employees have settled into comfortable patterns of working behaviour and are more precious about the separation of their work and personal domains. He says this behaviour will determine which markets, structurally, are going to benefit most from this revolution in how and where we work.”
Ian Ross, strategic solutions director for Logicalis Australia, said the findings don’t mean mature markets have shunned the BYOD opportunity.
“Australian businesses are some of the most supportive of BYOD. Sixty-one per cent of BYOD users have been encouraged to do so by their employer, versus 10 per cent who are actively discouraged. With such broad acceptance and Australia’s propensity for technology adoption, we see BYOD becoming a much larger piece of the Australian business mobility experience,” he said.
Spain is the only developed nation bucking the low BYOD adoption trend, with 63 per cent of employees using their own device at work.
Absalom said this could be attributed to Spain’s struggling economy, with people going to greater lengths to get ahead in their jobs.
The growing economic uncertainty and competition from Asia could see Australia beginning embrace BYOD, according to Ross.
However, he also warned that too much BYOD activity is going unmanaged: “29 per cent of Australian respondents who BYOD claim that their IT department either doesn’t know or ignores it. Even when they do encourage it, many companies simply don’t have the controls or policies in place to manage the business impact and risk,” he said. “The implications of losing sensitive data via a personally owned device can be dire. Every business must understand the behaviour of its own employees and have a strategy and measures in place to minimise the risk and maximise the opportunity.”
