Fujitsu warns that BYOD programs have a lot of hidden costs that IT departments often do not consider according to a recent article on FierceMobileIT. Craig Merrick, the managing consultant for mobile business solutions at Fujitsu (6702), explains the sources of extra costs of the BYOD program.
The enterprise can incur significant additional costs if it tries to support all versions of operating systems being used by BYOD employees. Mr. Merrick says software updates to smartphones could cause problems with existing corporate applications. This could lead to the help desk being overwhelmed with calls.
BYOD support costs
He cites a recent survey of 25,000 BYOD end users by Fujitsu found that 80% of users believe that their corporate IT department is responsible for fixing issues with their personal devices. “They want to bring their own device but they don’t want to take responsibility for fixing it,” Fujitsu’s Merrick said. Gartner (IT) forecasts that supporting BYOD will cost enterprises $300 per employee annually by 2016, up from a current $100 per employee annually.
Another area of unforeseen cost, according to the article is a security breach caused by BYOD. A survey (PDF) of 790 IT professionals by Dimensional Research on behalf of security firm Check Point found that 79% of respondents reported they had a mobile security incident within the past year. Many of these incidents stemmed from employees storing corporate information on personal devices.
Mobile security incidents
The report revealed that more than half of large businesses reported mobile security incidents that have cost them more than $500,000. For 45% of SMB, mobile security incidents exceeded $100,000 in the past year, the survey found. Tomer Teller, security evangelist and researcher at Check Point commented;
Without question, the explosion of BYOD, mobile apps, and cloud services has created a herculean task to protect corporate information for businesses both large and small.
The article concludes that additional costs for firms contemplating BYOD, can include network infrastructure upgrade, wireless service costs, device management product investment, and application and software investments, explained Forrester (FORR) analyst Michele Pelino.
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Many businesses believe that implementing a BYOD policy will save them both the capital outlay of acquiring devices and the ongoing cost of maintaining them. But the reality does not always match the theory. Planning and implementing a successful BYOD program requires executives to understand the costs, as well as the benefits.
Related articles
- A Quarter of US Business Users Experienced a Security Issue on Their Private Devices in 2013 (news.softpedia.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Quick Response codes (
Help Net Security writes that when used for legitimate purposes, they make life easier for users. “All you need to ‘visualize such a code is a smartphone with a camera and a QR reader application to scan it – the code can direct you to websites or online videos, send text messages and e-mails, or launch apps,” 
