Businesses to ask staff to “bring their own” mobiles

Businesses are set to become "mobilocracies", where most staff have access to a smartphone or other device.

Companies are turning to smartphones and other ultra-portable technology, such as tablets, to drive up productivity. But research into the topic suggests that firms will increasingly expect individuals to bring their own devices to work, rather than issuing company-owned equipment.

The Mobile Workforce Report, compiled by mobility services vendor iPass, surveyed working patterns among more than 4,000 people. According to the vendor, businesses that use mobile technologies can gain 240 hours a year, in additional productivity, at relatively little cost.

According to IDC, the market research firm, the number of mobile workers is set to pass one billion worldwide, by 2013. This is being driven by improved networks and cheaper and better smartphones, but also a more liberal attitude by companies to connecting employee-owned hardware to the corporate network or to business applications.

"We are seeing [access to a mobile device] as something that is expected, something that is the norm," said Steven Wastie, iPass' senior vice president. "This is being driven both by demand and supply: applications people want to access, price points for devices that are more attractive, and larger screen sizes."

The survey, which is in its fourth year, found that younger workers are more likely to use their own devices in business. As many as two thirds of mobile workers use a non-business smartphone for company tasks, as businesses continue to view smartphones as a "perk" reserved for more senior employees.

This will change, as businesses start to rely more on collaboration applications from instant messaging to tools such as WebEx which work on smartphones, and as employees demand access to corporate networks even when they are out of the office.

According to Wastie, a growing number of knowledge workers now leave their laptop in the office or at home when they travel, and depend instead on a smartphone as their primary portable device. In particular, workers are reporting that an "instant on" device is much more convenient to use on the road than a laptop PC. Employees with smartphones or tablets are, as a result, logging on to the network more often during the working day.

The trend towards greater use of smartphones, and more use of personal devices, will force companies to look again at their security policies, iPass warns. A move towards securing data rather than systems will make it easier to support both mobile workers and to exploit technologies such as cloud computing, but companies will also have to invest in educating mobile staff, to ensure they work in a safe way.