Apple is set to become the biggest beneficiary of the bring-your-own-device to work trend that is creeping into Australian workplaces.
Companies that have trialled or adopted BYO computing are finding that, given a choice, 80 per cent of employees opt for Apple notebooks and laptops over standard corporate-issued hardware.
Information management giant EMC recently concluded a global volunteer trial of BYO computing among 2500 employees. Clive Gold, chief technology officer Australia and New Zealand, said 8 in 10 workers taking part chose either a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro as their hybrid personal-work computer.
BYO computing is gathering pace as companies realise they can save hardware costs and improve employee motivation by allowing them to work on devices they choose. There is an expectation that support costs will also be lower if employees choose more intuitive and familiar devices.
Enterprises have traditionally been dominated by Windows compatible computers, a legacy from IBM and IBM-clone PCs of yesteryear. Apple’s biggest workplace inroads todate had been in creative industries such as graphic design and advertising.
Gold said finding that enterprise employees also want Apple was somewhat expected.
“It wasn’t a level playing field. They opted into the program because they wanted to use Apple in the first place or wanted something with more grunt. The tendency is that people who will go for BYO will be the more technical people or those who want to have something different.”
EMC will roll out optional BYO computing to all employees from early 2012. It already allows BYO smartphones. Employees will receive an allowance to purchase the device.
“I expect a lot more of the technical people will take that up. It’s the nature of the beast,” Gold said.
At Jetstar workers are also choosing Apple devices over others. Its Japanese subsidiary began with only a BYO policy in place. No company machines were issued.
“(There) we have mostly Apples – more than 80 per cent,” said Stephen Tame, CIO and head of IT.
He said in Australia Apple was also the choice of the majority of workers in the optional BYO program.
“This mix may well vary when the policy is phased in and mandated,” Tame said.
He said manufacturers like Toshiba, Dell and Samsung would likely benefit from the trend as they have adopted a “certain Apple look and feel”. Android would benefit in tablets and phones for being Apple-like but a more open platform.
However, traditional enterprise providers could lose a large chunk of their revenue if they are overlooked by employees who succumb to Apple’s lure.
Dell used to provide EMC’s corporate-issued Latitude laptops before being replaced recently by Lenovo. It is also the supplier of desktops to the Commonwealth Bank. The bank revealed this week it will be adopting Apple MacBook Airs in its new 6000-staff head office in Sydney.
Bernie Kelly, Dell general manager, public sector and large enterprise, said BYO was not threatening the company’s business.
Its Australian large enterprise revenue grew 7.5 per cent year on year, he said. But the small and medium business (SME) sector revenue grew faster at 13 per cent last year, followed by the public sector at 11 per cent.
“It is a fact this is a topic of some interest for some of our customers. We are having some discussions, but we haven’t seen any (downward) trends in our business,” Kelly said.
“We are seeing very small adoption and often as a supplement to core desktop or company-issued notebooks.”
He said through the recent acquisition of SecureWorks, cloud integrator Boomi and systems management appliance maker KACE Networks, Dell would cater for the virtualisation, system and software management, and enhanced security needed in conjunction with BYO computing.
Its new range of thinner, more stylish devices also had potential to benefit from the trend, he said.
“Vendors who would (achieve) the most success in a BYO device environment are the ones who understand that combination.”
Steve Hodgkinson, research director at research firm Ovum, said a move to user-choice would unleash frustrated enthusiasm for different and more modern devices.
“It is fair to say that the majority of large enterprise locked-down standard operating environments are based on desktops and laptops running Microsoft Windows – some of which are XP. So a move to a user-choice or BYO model will favour Apple laptops and tablets. Apple has become one of the largest IT companies in the world purely on the quality of its design and useability, so is not surprising that enterprise users would want to find out what all the fuss is about,” Hodgkinson said.
Enterprises remain committed to the Windows operation environment, however, with BYO early-adopters such as Jetstar, EMC and the Commonwealth Bank running virtualization software to deploy Windows on Apple machines.
Leanne Ward, vice president, IT outsourcing and support services, Unisys Asia Pacific, said many clients were opting for Apple, despite challenges in security, support, data ownership and standardisation.
“Employers are recognising it is an employee retention and attraction (strategy). It increases employee satisfaction,” Ward said.
“There is certainly an opportunity for companies not to spend money providing corporate-issued devices that aren’t of high value in the employees’ minds.”
A global study of information workers and IT department managers conducted by IDC for Unisys and released this month found a third of Australian employers were considering introducing a discount or stipend scheme in the next 12 months to assist employees in purchasing their own devices.
Ward expects IT support costs to decrease if Apple products are widely adopted.
“Apple do design their devices to be more intuitive. We anticipate eventually there may be less calls coming into the support desk,” Ward said.
Hodgkinson said IT departments will need to either explicitly include Apple devices in their standard operating environments or implement desktop virtualisation to make core applications device agnostic.
“Both these actions will create some new Apple-specific support costs but not necessarily increase IT costs overall because BYO and peer-support behaviours, coupled with user productivity and ‘feel good factor’ benefits, tend to create offsetting efficiencies vs. a traditional fully locked-down enterprise SOE.”
Source:http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/apple-surfs-into-workplace-on-byo-wave-20110923-1ko2p.html
