Two in five companies expect to stop providing devices to workers by 2016 as enterprise BYOD programs continue to become more commonplace, according to a CIO survey by Gartner.
The firm predicts that by 2017, half of employers will require employees to supply their own device to work on.
The forecast has potentially significant implications for telecom operators serving enterprise customers.
Gartner defines a BYOD strategy as spanning smartphones, tablets and even PCs. It may or may not include a subsidy.
The research firm finds that BYOD is most prevalent in midsize and large organizations -- $500 million to $5 billion in annual revenue, with 2,500 to 5,000 employees.
Adoption varies widely across the globe. Employees in India, China and Brazil are most likely to be using a personal device, typically a standard mobile phone, at work.
“However, the business case for BYOD needs to be better evaluated,” said David Willis, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner.. “Most leaders do not understand the benefits, and only 22% believe they have made a strong business case. If you are offering BYOD, take advantage of the opportunity to show the rest of the organization the benefits it will bring to them and to the business.”
Today, roughly half of BYOD programs provide a partial reimbursement, and full reimbursement for all costs will become rare. Gartner believes that coupling the effect of mass market adoption with the steady declines in carrier fees, employers will gradually reduce their subsidies and as the number of workers using mobile devices expands, those offering no subsidy whatsoever will grow.
Unsurprisingly, security is the top concern for BYOD. However, in general, IT is catching up to the phenomenon of BYOD. More than half of organizations rate themselves high in security of corporate data for enterprise-owned mobile devices.