Citrix CIO Paul Martine talks about implementing a BYOC program

Even though this presentation is almost a year of age now, i still think it's very informative and useful to watch if you're considering to implement a BYOC-like program. For 50 minutes, Martine talks about how Citrix looks back on starting their BYOC pilot, gives some useful insights and talks about important things to take into account when implementing your own BYOC program. The whole presentation can be found here.

Terminology

Ever since i started my byod research project back in August 2010, I've seen an increasing use of the many (somewhat confusing) acronyms that relate to the bring your own device concept. Let's go through some of the shortforms, what they mean and where they came from:

· Bring your own computer (BYOC) is probably what started the whole hype. This term was first used by Citrix, back in early 2008. They ran a pilot for a small group of employees, giving them a stipend to buy their own laptop, instead of using the corporate standard.

· Bring your laptop to work was Microsoft's version of BYOC. Initially, employees weren't given a sum of money, but they did however get to bring their personal laptops into the office to replace the corporate standard.

· Bring/Buy your own device (BYOD) is the most commonly used term for this trend as of today. It basically is the same as Citrix' original BYOC program, but instead of just notebooks, this covers other devices too (mainly phones and tablet-pc's) as stated in my last blogpost the B can stand for either "Bring" or "Buy".

· Employee-owned device program/policy are just different names for the same thing. A lot of companies experimenting with BYOD gave it their own fancy names.

· Bring your own PC (BYOPC) is another widely used term, but i've somehow seen people in the Netherlands use this one a lot as of lately.

Bring or buy; An introduction to BYOD

To put first things first, i'll start off briefly explaining the basics of the bring your own device concept. This trend made it's way into the world in many forms and variations, but i'll attempt to explain the two basic types.

As of today, there are two types of BYOD, each having their own variations;

• Bring your own device;
• Buy your own device.

It's only a one-word difference, but as you'll find out more and more, a difference not to be overlooked. The first of two variations (Bring), means employees now literally bring their own personally purchased devices (e.a. notebooks, smartphones, tablets) into the office and use them for work purposes. In most cases, IT management will provide employees and their own devices basic support. The bring your own device concept is most commonly used in companies hiring lots of jobbers, interns and other external staff. Both the business and their employees benefit from this scenario. The company doesn't have to purchase expensive hardware and software-licenses, and the employees will be happier using their own equipment and tools, that they're already familiar with in the first place.

In the latter of variations, the "B" stands for "Buy", which comes down to the following: Every employee that's willing to participate in the BYOD program, receives a set budget that they can spend to buy the hardware they prefer to use for work purposes. With this sum of money he could, for example, buy an expensive smartphone and a relatively cheap notebook, or vice versa. This way, companies facilitating the "Buy" variation of byod, empower their users to make their own choices in the devices they use, leading to a happier and more productive workforce (more on this in an upcoming blogpost). As of lately, businesses using the "Buy"variation, split up their budget, giving employees a separate fee for notebooks as well as (smart)phones.

In the end, you'll find out almost every company has it's different views, perceptions, and definitions on what "byod" exactly is and how it should be implemented and used. This, however, are the basic forms of "byod". In future blog posts, I'll talk about more variations on the two, and about how various early adopters implemented them.

First post!

Earlier this year, i graduated the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, writing a thesis on a variety of subjects including the consumerization of IT and the "bring your own" concept. After my study, i started my job at Nobel, a Dutch company where i also wrote my graduation thesis.

Because the earlier stated topics still have my interest, i'd like to share some of the research and work i've done in this blog. Other than that, i'll try to keep you up to date on the "bring your own" phenomenon and will occasionally discuss other related topics. 

To start off with something light, heres a Dilbert comic that i like to use to refute one of the major arguments against the byod concept.