Businesses Unprepared to
Support New Mobile Ways of Working
Citrix Survey reveals a lack of policies for managing the changing
nature of work as personal devices are increasingly used to access company
information
SYDNEY,
Australia. – November 22, 2011 – Citrix today
announced findings from
a recent global survey that examined how consumer-focused communications
devices are being increasingly adopted in the workplace.
The data reveals that small-and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) are coming under growing pressure to enable their employees
to use their personal smartphones, tablets and other devices for business use. Some 25 per cent of companies are already
supporting the use of such devices in the workplace, and many are benefitting
from a significant increase of 30 per cent in productivity, as their employees
are able to work anywhere, anytime from any device. However, 62 per cent of
businesses surveyed have no controls in place to manage these devices, and 45 per
cent of IT managers are unaware of all the devices being used,
raising questions regarding security and privacy.
“The nature of work continues to change,”
said Brett Caine, SVP and GM, Citrix. “The survey shows that employees are
using new consumer devices in the workplace for both business and personal use.
Organisations need to respond to this trend by developing policies to address
new mobile work styles that can drive productivity through more flexible
working, while safeguarding the use of data and sensitive information.”
The Citrix survey was undertaken to
understand the global use and management of personal communications devices in
the workplace to support the growing demands for workforce flexibility. Conducted
by YouGov and Research Now between May 2011 and August 2011, the survey polled
more than 1100 senior executives and IT managers across Australia, France,
Germany, United Kingdom, and the United States.
Results
Summary
Over the past few years, businesses
globally have come under significant commercial, regulatory and environmental
pressure to enable greater workforce mobility. With this demand, 57 per cent of
IT managers are most concerned over the security implications of employees
using personal devices for business. However, as indicated by the survey, more
than half of business executives and IT managers are unaware of all personal
devices used for business purposes, and lack an employee personal device
policy.
Although many businesses lack a
policy for managing employee’s personal devices for work, 38 per cent of
businesses globally do have a process or tool to manage and account for consumer
devices. These organisations are encouraging flexible work and a personal
device policy supported by the adoption of online support and monitoring tools
that include the highest levels of security.
Businesses that are quick to adapt to these changes are experiencing
significant improvements in productivity when personal devices are also used
for business purposes. Productivity has increased up to 20 per cent for many
organisations with a further 17 per cent confirming even greater gains.
In response to the use of personal
devices for work, a number of technology solutions are enabling businesses to
take advantage of the benefits of workforce mobility, at the same time ensuring
network security. For example, Citrix has extended its range of “GoTo”
solutions to enable remote device monitoring and management,
remote access, easy collaboration, secure file storage, transfer and sharing, and
remote IT support via a range of consumer devices including the iPad, iPhone,
as well as Android devices. Additionally,
the full Citrix product portfolio, including XenDesktop, Receiver and
VDI-in-a-Box, gives IT the power to say yes to personal devices and to deliver
a mix of applications and data to them, without compromising security,
manageability or user experience.
“It is no longer building for PC
versus Mac,” said Caine. “It is designing for the ubiquitous device changing
the nature of work to anywhere, anytime.”
Increasing
Pressures for Flexible Work Practices Calls for New Thinking about IT
In addition to the proliferation of
personal devices used for work, businesses are also feeling pressure to adopt
more flexible work practices that promote better work-life balance for
employees. According to this Citrix survey, 35 per cent of the participants say they
are under greater pressure than five years ago to offer more flexibility for
employees.
As more companies adopt the
practice of allowing the use of personal devices and embrace more flexible
working schedules, an
opportunity arises for IT to change the way they work. This includes adopting new
services to proactively monitor, manage and support the increasing mobile
workforce, ensuring business continuity and minimal
lost productivity of people working away from the office. IT
managers also need to be able to work more efficiently, supporting people and
machines from anywhere.
”The growth of mobile devices,
bridging both personal and work use, represents new opportunities for IT
support. The edge of the company network is extended while software
ubiquity and complexity rapidly increases.” said Elizabeth Cholawsky, VP and GM
of IT Services, Citrix. “Enabling support, monitoring and managing remote and mobile
workers is now a de facto requirement for IT to ensure highly productive and
effective businesses.”
Survey Top Findings: Global
·
The
dividing line between business and personal devices for work use has become
increasingly blurred; less than half of IT managers, 45 per cent, are unaware
of all the personal devices being used by their staff for business purposes.
·
Businesses
are seeing productivity gains of up to 36 per cent from employees using both
personal and business devices.
·
Bring Your
Own (BYO) is becoming an accepted business practice for both SMB and enterprise
with 25 per cent supporting use of
personal devices for business purposes.
·
Some 35 per
cent of participants say they are under greater pressure to adopt workforce
flexibility practices, including flexibility in the devices used and places
employees work.
·
Security
still ranks #1 as an adoption barrier of allowing remote work for 57 per cent of
participants.
·
Surprisingly,
62 per cent of participants have no process or tool to manage and account for
the way consumer devices are being used with company data and services. The
remaining 38 per cent have processes and policies in place to manage and
support personal devices, mitigating the risk of compromising their business.
Regional
breakdown
Australia
·
More than
63 per cent of participants have no policies, procedures or IT systems in
place to manage the use of personal devices for business purposes.
·
Less than
half of ANZ firms (47 per cent) are aware of all the devices their staff is
using for business purposes. This is well ahead of the European average of just
43 per cent.
·
50 per
cent of businesses have recorded productivity improvements of more than 10 per
cent. Nineteen per cent of businesses confirm productivity gains of more than 30
per cent.
·
32 per
cent of firms are most concerned over the security implications of allowing
application and document downloads, and 24 per cent are concerned over remote
access to the corporate network.
Germany
·
59 per
cent of participants are not aware of all the personal devices being used by
staff on behalf of the business.
·
In 56 per
cent of German firms, employees already use their own devices for business
purposes.
·
SMEs are
most concerned over the security implications of allowing remote access to the
corporate network (34 per cent) and application and document downloads (29 per
cent).
·
However,
by integrating business and personal use effectively, more than two in five
businesses have recorded productivity improvements of up to 20 per cent with a
further 17 per cent confirming even greater gains.
France
·
74 per
cent of all firms have no policies, procedures or IT systems in place to manage
the use of personal devices for business purposes.
·
At the
same time, only 32 per cent are aware of all the devices their staff are using
for business purposes – significantly below the European average of 43 per cent.
·
In 61 per
cent of French firms, employees already use their own devices for business
purposes.
·
More than
2 in 5 businesses (42 per cent) have recorded productivity improvements of up
to 20 per cent, with a further 20 per cent confirming even greater gains.
United
Kingdom
·
57 per
cent have no policies, procedures or IT systems in place to manage the use of
personal devices for business purposes.
·
Only half
of UK firms (54 per cent) are aware of all the devices their staff are using
for business purposes - yet even this is well ahead of the European average of
43 per cent.
·
In 45 per
cent of firms surveyed, employees already use their own devices for business
purposes.
·
33 per
cent of businesses have recorded productivity improvements of more than 10 per
cent, with 11 per cent confirming gains of more than 30 per cent.
·
32 per
cent of firms are most concerned over the security implications of allowing
application and document downloads and 29 per cent are concerned over remote
access to the corporate network.
U.S.
·
More than
67 per cent have no policies, procedures or IT systems in place to manage the
use of personal devices for business purposes.
·
Less than
half of U.S. firms (46 per cent) are aware of all the devices their staff are
using for business purposes - yet even this is well ahead of the European
average of just 43 per cent.
·
53 per
cent of businesses have recorded productivity improvements of more than 10 per
cent, with 16 per cent confirming gains of more than 30 per cent.
·
32 per
cent of firms are most concerned over the security implications of allowing
application and document downloads, and 23 per cent are concerned over remote
access to the corporate network.
