Dell recently released a survey titled BYOD:Putting Users First Produces Biggest Gains, Fewest Setbacks (PDF of survey here) that warns organizations against ignoring BYOD. The survey has some great insights into the world of IT and BYOD.

A few highlights of the survey and my additional comments are below.

• A user-centric strategy can have a significant and positive impact reaping rewards for companies in data management and security, as well as employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Approximately 74% experienced improved employee productivity while an estimated 70% saw faster customer response times.

• Companies who embraced BYOD programs experienced improved employee productivity, faster customer response times and improved operational efficiencies.

• Companies with well-established BYOD policies are the least likely to experience any kind of setbacks, with over a quarter of this group experiencing none at all.

• Over half of respondents state that BYOD has completely changed their IT culture (approximately 56%) and or business culture (approximately54%) in their organization.

There are some great insights into organizations and BYOD in the survey…definitely check out the full survey here.

From a user and IT perspective, embracing BYOD is a necessity these days. Five years ago, IT could have (and did) say “no” to employee’s bringing their own devices into the organization.  Often times, employees (or consultants) did bring their laptops in to work but those were rarely allowed on the internal network.

Today, the ability to say “no” is still there of course…but saying “no” can have a negative impact for an organization via lost productivity and general ‘good will’ from employees.  Additionally, based on the results of this survey,  saying ‘yes’ to BYOD can bring about positive change to processes and culture within an organization.

With that said, there is a vary large issue that arises with BYOD. The issue is one of data protection and security.  IT groups struggle with this issue on a daily basis as it requires a considerable amount of thought and planning to ensure that all devices – whether owned by the organization or by the employee – are protected and secured.

One approach is to turn to a company like Dell for end-to-end security solutions, including laptops and tables. For example, Dell’s KACE systems provide management services for devices ranging from from desktops to smartphones. Dell laptops like the Laitude E6540 seamlessly integrate into the enterprise to allow for management and security. Additionally, the E6540 can be bundled the  McAfee Security Center to ensure a complete end-to-end security solution for employees.  Additionally, McAfee Security Center or McAfee Mobile Security can be used to ensure the same security and protection exists for employee owned devices.

Regardless of the vendor or devices used, the road to success of any BYOD strategy is to ensure all devices are protected and the data on the devices is secure and backed up. This can be a bit of a hassle with multiple device types, but if an organization can standardize on a solution that fits the majority of devices, many headaches will be alleviated.

While many organizations may want to say ‘no’ to BYOD to keep these headaches away completely, the benefits of BYOD seem to outweight the negatives that come from BYOD – at least with the proper planning and solutions for securing computers and devices.

I’d recommend jumping over to the full report here and reading through it….there are some great insights to be found.

“This is a paid post in conjunction with IDG and Dell”.