The Motorola Atrix takes BYOD to a whole new level

One of the projects that caught my attention from the start, was the Nirvana phone. This was a concept started by Citrix, in cooperation with OpenKernel Labs. The idea behind this device was just to plug the phone into a monitor and connect to a keyboard via Bluetooth. Instead of using a mouse, the phone could be used as a touchpad. As a result, you'd have a full desktop experience without actually having a full desktop. 

Recently, Motorola gave this concept a whole new dimension by releasing their Atrix 4G phone. At it's releasedate (March 6th), this was the first dual-core Android phone, and was dubbed by Motorola as "the world's most powerful smartphone". The thing has a 4" qHD screen, as well as 1GB of RAM paired with a 1930mAh battery to keep it all running. There's a lot more to say about this monster of a device, but it's a lot more interesting to see it in action in the video on top of this post. Currently, AT&T is selling a package of docking plus phone, for $499,99.

Reasons for implementing an employee-owned device program

There can be a lot of reasons to start thinking about implementing a form of BYOD. In this post i'll talk about some of the possible benefits you can gain by facilitating an employee-owned device program. Some of the advantages are subject to which form of BYOD is used. Other than that, how big (or small) of an advantage you gain from starting with BYOD, depends a lot on your company as well; BYOD is not for everyone.

As promised, here's the list of advantages:

• Empowering your employees. Giving your employees the freedom to use their own devices, instead of forcing them to use the corporate standard, will lead to more satisfied, and overall happier employees.
• Better productivity. Employees being happy in their work will automatically lead to them being more productive.
• Shifting the scope of your IT department. Employees using their own devices, will have less problems using them, because mostly, they're already familiar with them. In most cases they also take better care of their own equipment in comparison to a company-owned device. With OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) service and warranty, desktop management will be effectively outsourced. This way, the IT department will be able to focus on other things such as infrastructure and security.
• Flexibility. For both business and personal use, employees can now enjoy maximum flexibility, because it only concerns one device. Facilitating BYOD often results in a flexible workforce. And not just your own employees benefit from this, it also gets significantly easier to hire external people, interns and other temporary employees. 
• The new world of work. Another trend that gained huge popularity over the past years is the new world of work. An employee-owned device program could definitely be a part of this.
•  Recruitment tool. The extra working condition of being allowed to bring your own devices to work can be very attracting to potential new employees. Especially to millennials (generation Y), who usually recently graduated from university and are already used to working with their own equipment during their study. 
• Branding. In the current state that BYOD is in, joining in on the trend can mean a boost to the image of your company. The company will be seen as innovative and could even serve as an example for other businesses.

Of course, implementing BYOD also comes with various risks and possible disadvantages, which i'll talk about in a next blogpost. For now, feel free to add any other advantages that i might have forgot to mention, in the comments below.