Use your own gizmos, have fun at work in Bangalore

You may not own the workplace. But why not miss a chance for feeling home while at work? One way to ensure that work is not alienating is to encourage employees use their own devices at workplace, more and more corporations think.

Now that enterprise mobility is a burgeoning industry, corporations are seeing twin benefits in the trend that is fast gaining popularity not only globally but also in India: it’s a capital saving instrument as well as a productivity enhancing measure as employees are expected to perform better as they feel at home while at work.

Anil Dutta, an employee in a leading IT firm, said, “Being allowed to use our own devices for official work is a blessing in disguise. It makes work more pleasing.” Many others in the technology space echo Dutta’s sentiments.

A study by Citrix states that almost 44% of the companies surveyed have a formal bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy in place, and nearly every company, almost 94%, expects to frame such a policy supporting consumerisation of IT, by mid-2013. The adoption of the concept is most predominant in India where over a third, 34%, workers use their personal devices in office.

The trend was aided by what is called as ‘Consumerisation’, which explains the growing phenomenon of a new product introduced in the market becoming more popular in the enterprise space rather than only consumers, as was previously the case. 

For instance, gadgets like the iPad are now used more by companies for business-related practices than just consumers on a daily basis. Though the concept is yet to gain mass popularity in the country, with the plethora of devices coming out in the last three-four years, employees have been getting more conscious of the devices they carry, even into work.

According to Suhas Kelkar, CTO, BMC Software, the whole concept started with the introduction of iPhone.

“Since then, slowly but steadily gadgets existing in the consumer world are getting transferred to enterprise IT,” he said.
In fact, considering that employee satisfaction levels improve drastically, enriching their productivity levels, many Indian companies are contemplating introducing BYOD.

Despite this, companies like Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro have a policy in place for employees at the executive level. “All these companies are on a trial phase. Expect them to come out with a more comprehensive policy soon,” said an industry insider.  

He pointed out that GenPact has already got a policy in place, although it would not apply to their call-centre employees due to client issues. Essar Group too is expected to follow suit shortly.

Jagdish Mahapatra, director - enterprise sales, Cisco, reasons out why the trend was slow to pick up in its initial days, “The IT companies until now have not been able to put a policy in place as they work in a highly compliant environment. They have to cross check with their global clients if they are open to allowing employees using their personal gadgets.”

With companies able to save close to 60% of their cost on asset management, one can expect acceptance of consumerisation of IT to grow significantly in the coming years. It would also be easier for companies to attract and retain top talent and young workers alike. The Citrix study also states that the strong desire of firms to lower the total cost of ownership of a large number of enterprise PCs is one of the main drivers.

BFSI, IT & ITES, telecom, retail and manufacturing are among the sectors which are expected to see maximum traction of the trend. On an optimistic note, Sanjay Deshmukh, area vice-president, Citrix, said, “Gen Y is the ‘Born Digital’ generation, for whom the freedom of choice is important. Realising this we in Citrix have implemented the policy in a comprehensive manner. This has resulted in higher productivity of employees. It is a win-win situation for both us as well as our employees.”