Over 80 per cent of IT managers think that enterprises with a BYOD policy hold a competitive advantage over other organisations.

According to research commissioned by BT, which covered 2,000 IT users and IT managers in 11 countries and from a range of sectors, over four in five companies say they already allow BYOD or will do within the next 24 months and 60 per cent of employees claim they are already allowed to connect personally-owned devices to the corporate network.

Sixty four per cent of IT managers think that having a BYOD policy will enable employees to be more productive. Forty eight per cent think it will also allow employees to work more flexibly and 47 per cent think it will enable employees to serve customers better. This sentiment is shared by employees – 42 per cent of employees using their own device for work believe that they are more efficient and productive as a result.

Security concerns remain, however. Only one in ten think that all BYOD users recognise the risks and less than one in five believe all users understand the access/permissions related to their mobile devices. And it appears IT managers are nervous with some justification. Of employees who use their own device for work, one in three see “no risk” in using their own device in a work context and just a quarter recognise the significant risk they pose to company security. Thirty nine per cent of enterprises have experienced a security breach due to employees bringing in unauthorised devices – most commonly in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and pharmaceuticals sectors. Eighty three per cent of IT decision makers believe that putting 24/7 access to corporate systems into the hands of an increasingly mobile workforce is now the main threat to corporate IT security.

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