Your thoughts on BYOD

[IAmAndre]

Hi,

 

I'm a programmer and for years I've been working on my own as a freelancer, until recently as I've started working for a company last month. I was assigned a crappy laptop since I don't own one (I'm using a desktop at home, and a tablet when I'm out), and I'm really considering buying a laptop with my own money for my work. Actually I've asked for a new laptop quite a few times with no result so I think I'd be better off with a laptop of mine, which would also allow me to run all kinds of programs, and work on my own projects even when I'm at the company.

I can see that the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is an interesting topic and many articles have been written about it, so I'd like to know your thoughts. I'm not talking about my case in particular, but it usually makes the employer save money since I will probably upgrade my laptop way more often than they would, but then it raises security issues. It usually increases productivity as you're using a laptop you know well with the tools you chose, but in my particular case, I'm considering working on my projects or on my customers' projects when I'm at work, which could be a downside for my employer.

So what do you guys think about all this? Are you bringing your laptop at work?

[manikyath]

i got a dualcore i5 with 2GB ram from work, and honestly, props to the IT guy because it runs pretty smoothly.

 

the common issues with BYOD are:

- company data on your private laptop (not a problem everywhere, quite a big deal in some places)

- private stuff on the company network

- company software needs to be installed on your personal device

- virusses.

- your device may break, at which point it's on your bill to sort it out.

- FYOD: "forget your own device"

- no standardisation, i dont even need to drag a charger between my two job locations, because both sides have plenty of chargers avialable, since everyone has the same laptop

[IAmAndre]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i got a dualcore i5 with 2GB ram from work, and honestly, props to the IT guy because it runs pretty smoothly.

 

the common issues with BYOD are:

- company data on your private laptop (not a problem everywhere, quite a big deal in some places)

- private stuff on the company network

- company software needs to be installed on your personal device

- virusses.

- your device may break, at which point it's on your bill to sort it out.

- FYOD: "forget your own device"

- no standardisation, i dont even need to drag a charger between my two job locations, because both sides have plenty of chargers avialable, since everyone has the same laptop

Interesting. I'm complaining about the laptop I was given which has 4GB of RAM, but the things I hate the most are the crappy screen with poor viewing angles and low resolution, and the heat. About the company data thing, it might even be an advantage since it would allow me to work from home (I'm a developer so having the source codes and the credentials would be very helpful).

I agree with all your points so I might give a second thought before investing on a laptop.

[dalekphalm]

12 minutes ago, IAmAndre said:

Hi,

 

I'm a programmer and for years I've been working on my own as a freelancer, until recently as I've started working for a company last month. I was assigned a crappy laptop since I don't own one (I'm using a desktop at home, and a tablet when I'm out), and I'm really considering buying a laptop with my own money for my work. Actually I've asked for a new laptop quite a few times with no result so I think I'd be better off with a laptop of mine, which would also allow me to run all kinds of programs, and work on my own projects even when I'm at the company.

I can see that the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is an interesting topic and many articles have been written about it, so I'd like to know your thoughts. I'm not talking about my case in particular, but it usually makes the employer save money since I will probably upgrade my laptop way more often than they would, but then it raises security issues. It usually increases productivity as you're using a laptop you know well with the tools you chose, but in my particular case, I'm considering working on my projects or on my customers' projects when I'm at work, which could be a downside for my employer.

So what do you guys think about all this? Are you bringing your laptop at work?

Obviously there are benefits for either system.

 

At my work, BYOD is against policy (for actual workstations - we don't care if you check facebook on your cellphone, you just can't use your personal computer instead of your workstation for doing your job).

 

We don't have a strong need for lots of mobile devices though, so most people have their office desktop, and that's it. The CEO has a Surface Pro 3, and we have a collection of about a half dozen laptops (varying specs) that employees can book for when a mobile device is needed.

[dalekphalm]

Just now, IAmAndre said:

Interesting. I'm complaining about the laptop I was given which has 4GB of RAM, but the things I hate the most are the crappy screen with poor viewing angles and low resolution, and the heat. About the company data thing, it might even be an advantage since it would allow me to work from home (I'm a developer so having the source codes and the credentials would be very helpful).

I agree with all your points so I might give a second thought before investing on a laptop.

The specs of the laptop can indeed be a problem. The laptops we buy here tend to be medium-high end. i7's w/ large HDD's (No SSD's - still trying to convince upper management that they are worth the extra cost) for the most part. Screens are a mixed bag. We have one old laptop w/ a 17" screen that's decent, but the rest of the specs are a little old now. We have another brand new laptop w/ a 15" touch screen that is pretty gorgeous (and 1080p).

 

Obviously if the laptop they gave you is limited in specs, and is interfering with your productivity, you should do something about that.

 

But, I would start with requesting the IT Department to upgrade the RAM. See if they will buy 2x 8GB modules (or even a single 8GB one) to drop in your laptop.

What are the other specs? CPU? HDD? screen size/type/resolution?

[IAmAndre]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

The specs of the laptop can indeed be a problem. The laptops we buy here tend to be medium-high end. i7's w/ large HDD's (No SSD's - still trying to convince upper management that they are worth the extra cost) for the most part. Screens are a mixed bag. We have one old laptop w/ a 17" screen that's decent, but the rest of the specs are a little old now. We have another brand new laptop w/ a 15" touch screen that is pretty gorgeous (and 1080p).

 

Obviously if the laptop they gave you is limited in specs, and is interfering with your productivity, you should do something about that.

 

But, I would start with requesting the IT Department to upgrade the RAM. See if they will buy 2x 8GB modules (or even a single 8GB one) to drop in your laptop.

What are the other specs? CPU? HDD? screen size/type/resolution?

I don't remember what CPU it is, but all I know for sure is that it's quite slow and almost overheating. It has a spinning hard drive, I haven't checked the size. It has a 15 inch 768p (or 720p) screen with extremely poor viewing angles and poor quality/color reproduction overall. The palm rest often gets hot, I can hear the fan spinning loudly, and it often crashes when I have many tabs/apps open or when I use relatively resource-heavy browser extensions, which is a shame since I'm a web developer. Also, having a 23 inch monitor at home, using a 15 inch one at work is really disturbing. We have quite a few monitors lying around though so I'll eventually grab one.

[Sauron]

It depends on your workplace's policies. If your work depends on system integration and plenty of custom apps, byod is not for you. If it doesn't affect your ability to work in any way other than speed, then you should definitely consider it.

[minibois]

I worked at a company and we worked on laptops. They had a couple of laptops, but not enough for all employees. So a couple of the employees just started bringing their own  laptops (I didn't because I don't have a laptop).

 

So my opinion on BYOD is:

It's a decent idea, but in practice kinda annoying for the person bringing their own system. You have to install quite a few programs on your own device, people will have to borrow your laptop or use it for a second sometimes, which is annoying with a personal device (with personal details and stuff on it your want to keep private), etc.

 

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, Minibois said:

I worked at a company and we worked on laptops. They had a couple of laptops, but not enough for all employees. So a couple of the employees just started bringing their own  laptops (I didn't because I don't have a laptop).

 

So my opinion on BYOD is:

It's a decent idea, but in practice kinda annoying for the person bringing their own system. You have to install quite a few programs on your own device, people will have to borrow your laptop or use it for a second sometimes, which is annoying with a personal device (with personal details and stuff on it your want to keep private), etc.

 

There's also the liability aspect.

 

If I accidentally mess up one of our Workstations - I can just format the PC and reinstall Windows.

 

If I accidentally mess up an employees BYOD device, they might have legal precedence to take the company and/or myself to court for a lawsuit. Even if hardware is totally undamaged, if there was data loss (eg: I accidentally formatted over their family pictures that have no other copy of), the company could still be liable for that.

 

That's something many companies don't want to deal with. Some BYOD companies will have a policy saying that IT will NOT TOUCH your personal devices, and therefore, if there's a problem, you gotta figure it out yourself.

 

Here at my place of employment, we use that policy. We pretty much ban BYOD devices, but let it slide in some cases - but in all cases, we don't touch anyone's personal equipment.

 

Because we're a public library, that policy extends to the devices from members of the public - we won't touch their devices. We don't support them, and any issues will have to be fixed by the member of the public, or by someone authorized to do repairs (eg: Best Buy).

[Zodiark1593]

BYOD could work well in cases where devices are not expensive, and the employee can basically buy a disposable PC of their choice with preferably no irreplaceable personal data on it, or perhaps, a very small company where employees have their own workstations already.

 

In large scale corporations with all kinds of employees, BYOD is cumbersome and a potential liability for both corporate, and private data. While there are one or two employees that know what they're doing, and bend the rules to bring in a more suitable device for their use, to either manage a vast array of different devices, or otherwise tell users they're on their own is a surefire means of garnering dissatisfaction.

[Mark77]

As an engineer, completely "unnacceptable".   The IT guys should be maintaining the devices, stocking spares appropriately, and taking care of things like backups.  The last thing I want to do is lose a few days of work because my personal device fails in such a way that I can't blame the company. 

 

Accordingly, I have little interest in BYOD.  If a company can't be bothered to have competent IT and invests properly in IT, they're probably not worth working for.  And yes, if I'm glued to a computer "at work", it had better be a darn good one.  Preferrably with specs at least as good as what I have "at home".

 

Actual physical hardware is so incredibly dirt cheap today.  There's no excuse for trying to cheap out on hardware by doing BYOD. 

[Megalopath]

BYOD has its own benefits and risks like anything else. Probably the biggest risk is security, second being standardization. A good BYOD policy might help, for example the laptop must have drive encryption and cannot be used as a personal device as well, you could also try for potential compensation for it due to the limits that would be imposed. This approach would work good for developers specifically since they would be able to use good hardware for their tasks and would fix the issue of standardization providing the developer can service their own equipment. If you could negotiate that approach you might get somewhere.

 

Where I work, which is a highly secured environment (will not say the name so please don't try asking), so the laptops here are provided by and serviced by us. We allow use of personal devices for things like email (through a secured enterprise service [again don't ask, I won't tell]), but this doesn't really qualify in the type of BOYD you are considering. This might be a common method in a company wanting to protect their source code so you might just be stuck depending where you work.