Bring Your Own App (BYOA) storming Australian businesses, IT departments ill prepared to manage the change
March 11, 2014 | Announcements
Nearly two-thirds of Australian enterprises now have staff that use personal apps for work, or Bring You Own App (BYOA), and businesses are struggling to keep up with this phenomenon which is set to overtake BYOD as a strategic IT change, according to a new study released today by emerging technology analyst firm Telsyte.
Telsyte’s Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study 2014 surveyed more than 460 CIOs and ICT decision makers on their organisation’s approach to BYOD and BYOA . The findings revealed 27% of organisations allow staff to use any personal mobile or cloud app for work purposes without any restrictions.
A similar number allow BYOA from an approved catalogue of apps and a smaller set of businesses do not allow it, but CIOs concede staff go ahead and do it anyway. Among companies that allow, or tolerate, BYOA, 30 per cent of staff actively use personal apps for work purposes indicating a high groundswell of interest.
Some 34 per cent of businesses do not allow BYOA at all and enforce it with tactical approaches like management tools or other means.
Telsyte Senior Analyst Rodney Gedda says there is a lot of interest in the BYOD trend, but many organisations have overlooked the apps that enter the workplace on personal devices.
“Couple this with thousands of mobile apps, for both personal and business handsets, and the plethora of cloud services available via mobile devices and the Web, and people are creating a new form of shadow-IT with BYOA,” Gedda says.
According to Telsyte research, popular BYOA software used for business include: data backups and storage (Dropbox, iCloud); calendaring; collaboration (GoToMeeting, WebEx); voice communications (Skype); project and task management (Remember the Milk); productivity (Pages, QuickOffice Pro); multimedia; and note taking (Evernote).
Balance BYOA for productivity and security
Local businesses can take advantage of the emerging BYOA trend by allowing staff to be productive with public software, however, in many cases this will need to be balanced with the security and integration requirements of corporate IT.
If businesses ban BYOA outright they will miss out on productivity and innovation that comes with people managing their own IT requirements.
Telsyte research indicates data privacy and security are the number one challenges cited by CIOs arising from staff adopting “Bring You Own” IT – both devices and apps.
Nearly 80 per cent of Australia’s IT departments have no plans to officially support BYOA further indicating the lack of readiness for this emerging social trend.
Summary of report findings
• Smartphones are the preferred business device with 80% of existing organisation-owned mobile handsets being smartphones.
• 84% of organisations have ICT and processes in place for people to become a mobile worker.
• 44% of organisations currently support BYOD and is set to grow rapidly with 34% of organisations that currently do not support BYOD, planning to adopt within in two years.
• Email access was the number one factor driving BYOD. Data privacy and security are the top challenges with BYO cited by ICT decision makers.
• Bring Your Own Apps (BYOA) now in two-thirds of businesses, IT departments largely unprepared for this change.
• Around a quarter of Australian businesses currently use a dedicated MDM solution, more than doubling in 12 months.
• The MDM vendor space remains fragmented with BlackBerry the most implemented followed by AirWatch, MobileIron, Good Technology and SAP.
• 84% of organisations have ICT and processes in place for people to become a mobile worker.
• 44% of organisations currently support BYOD and is set to grow rapidly with 34% of organisations that currently do not support BYOD, planning to adopt within in two years.
• Email access was the number one factor driving BYOD. Data privacy and security are the top challenges with BYO cited by ICT decision makers.
• Bring Your Own Apps (BYOA) now in two-thirds of businesses, IT departments largely unprepared for this change.
• Around a quarter of Australian businesses currently use a dedicated MDM solution, more than doubling in 12 months.
• The MDM vendor space remains fragmented with BlackBerry the most implemented followed by AirWatch, MobileIron, Good Technology and SAP.
About the Telsyte Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study 2014
The Telsyte Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study 2014 is a comprehensive 85-page report, which provides subscribers with key market insight across mobile service provider market share; mobility strategy; device purchasing trends; supported mobile operating systems; smartphone brand penetration; factors influencing smartphone purchasing; mobile e-mail; BYOD; BYOA; media tablet market share and impact on PCs; mobile app development; apps used on smartphones and media tablets; mobile device management (MDM); mobile application management (MAM) and enterprise wireless (Wi-Fi).
The Telsyte Australian Enterprise Mobility Market Study 2014 is a comprehensive 85-page report, which provides subscribers with key market insight across mobile service provider market share; mobility strategy; device purchasing trends; supported mobile operating systems; smartphone brand penetration; factors influencing smartphone purchasing; mobile e-mail; BYOD; BYOA; media tablet market share and impact on PCs; mobile app development; apps used on smartphones and media tablets; mobile device management (MDM); mobile application management (MAM) and enterprise wireless (Wi-Fi).
