CYOD – The middle ground for IT managers
In today’s business world, Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) is a buzzword that speaks to the younger generations in particular, pushing it up HR’s agenda. If you want to attract to best talent, offering a selection of devices can be a great strategy, but what effect does that have on the IT department?
CYOD, BYOD, CO and COPE
CYOD (Choose Your Own Device) allows employees to choose the tool they want to work with from a list of pre-approved notebooks, tablets and smartphones. For IT departments, this means keeping control of security and management while the number of devices to manage is limited. For HR, CYOD is an attractive option as it boosts employer attractiveness by giving them the freedom of choice—particularly important for younger generations used to flexibility. For employees, CYOD allows them to influence their work environment by choosing a device that fits their personal preferences and work style.
On the flip side, having various devices available also poses challenges. Compared to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), where employees use their own tools without much monitoring, CYOD offers a controlled environment. Managing all of the different devices, however, is a complex task Various operating systems and hardware configurations can lead to high workloads as your IT team is ultimately responsible for taking care of updates and security. The risk of data breaches and security problems is also higher in a BYOD environment as employees are responsible for the security of their own devices.
Then there’s the different between CO and COPE. Corporate-owned devices (CO) are the property of the company. IT has full control of configuration, security measures and updates. With Corporate-owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) devices, on the other hand, employees receive a corporate device that can also be used outside of work. You have full control over device security and management, but the end users have more flexibility of configuration. This option does offer employees less choice, however.
CYOD (Choose Your Own Device): Employees can choose from a list of devices pre-approved by the organisation, giving them a certain freedom of choice while the IT department remain in control of security and management.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): Employees use their personal devices for work. This offers maximum freedom of choice, but poses significant security and management challenges for IT.
Corporate-owned: All devices are purchased and managed by the organisation. Employees have little choice, but this ensures standardisation and maximum control for IT.
COPE (Corporate-owned, Personally Enabled): The company makes devices available and manages them, but employees can also use them for private use. This offers more flexibility than corporate-owned systems but the IT department still retains full control.
CYOD in practice – Personas and packages
At Bechtle, we are of the firm belief that CYOD is the best option for most businesses. CYOD is an attractive compromise between giving employees the freedom to choose without making management complicated as the number of devices used at the company is limited to the selection available. Your employees can choose from this pre-approved list of devices which provide a higher feeling of autonomy, leading to higher levels of satisfaction and productivity.
But it’s not only the end users that benefit, but HR, too. CYOD also allows HR to attract new and young talent by allowing them the freedom that these generations look for in the workplace. By having an influence on the tools they’re using, your company becomes more attractive to applicants. Finance can also benefit from CYOD as it provides better insights and better cost control. It prevents fragmentation of device supply and enables more efficient budgeting.
For IT departments too, CYOD provides considerable added value. Instead of being restrictive, it promotes employee freedom of choice and personal preference, making IT departments more flexible and supportive partners within the organisation.
By sorting employees into personas according to needs and ways of working, we can offer them custom packages they can choose from and you can ensure that the number of different devices within your organisation is limited. We conduct a persona survey in your organisation to determine the different categories by talking to your end users to define their needs and create user profiles. In this way, we know exactly what each user needs to get their work done well, ensuring you maximum return on your investment. It could also be that you realise you’re offering a device that doesn’t offer certain features the end user needs to get the job done.
All in all, CYOD, allows your IT team to work more efficiently as the standardisation of selected personas allows them to provide quicker and more effective support.
Conclusion
CYOD offers an interesting way to boost employee satisfaction and productivity, but it’s important not to lose sight of the knock on effect on the IT department. A well-thought-out approach such as working with personas and offering packages with limited choice creates a balance that benefits employees, HR, and IT managers equally.
Want to find out more such as what persona research looks like? Read more here:
