WHITEPAPER BYOD BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE. As private smartphones, tablet PCs & Co. result in a change in technology in the workplace.

Transcription

1 WHITEPAPER BYOD BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE As private smartphones, tablet PCs & Co. result in a change in technology in the workplace.

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Trend towards using private Smartphones, Tablet PCs and Notebooks in business, (Bring Your Own Device or BYOD for short), has also arrived in Germany. 80 % of German businesses now allow their employees to use their private devices at work. Wherever use of these devices is permitted, four out of five employees make use of them. In most instances, it is the smart phone that is used, and this is mostly used for phone calls. NFON provides the solution to two of business' great challenges: controlling the cost of calls and preventing the passing on of private mobile numbers to customers or competitors. NFON is paving the way for a new trend with a development of its own: TYCD (Take Your Company Device). This gives businesses another reason to invest in Tablets as, with this solution, every Tablet can take over full and convenient control of systems phones and can also be taken home for private use by employees. INTRODUCTION BY JENS BLOMEYER 7pm on Friday evening at Terminal 2, Munich Airport. Weekly commuters from Hamburg alight from the Lufthansa plane, Smartphones in their hands and Notebooks under their arms, and head off towards the trains or their cars so they can quickly get home to their families. The last business has just been replied to when the text message Are you on time? We've been invited over to Christine and Mike's at 8 o'clock also arrives. The phone rings - an incoming call from a colleague who is dealing with the conclusion of contract negotiations in Hamburg. Who is not familiar with these moments where the increasing mobility of the working population is clearly palpable? They are an everyday part of my life. I have a Smartphone, a Tablet and a Notebook. They are my own private devices, but they contain both business and private communications. But this IT trend, known as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), still doesn't yet happen as a matter of course in many businesses. The following white paper looks at the BOYD trend and the technical implementation of its most important use of information: communication. In project discussions with customers, I observe again and again how often mobile phones and Notebooks are given out by the respective IT administrators and the use of people's own private devices is banned. Even in our own company, new employees are constantly amazed when the IT department asks Would you like to use your Smartphone and Notebook at work as well? Jens Blomeyer, Chief Marketing & Chief Financial Officer, NFON AG 2 NFON

3 BYOD A TREND CATCHES ON BYOD stands for 'Bring Your Own Device' and describes an IT movement that allows employees, business partners and other users to use devices that they have chosen and bought themselves, such as Smartphones, Tablets, Notebooks or desk-top PCs, in order to access business applications and data such is the definition given by market research company, Gartner. The iphone, whose first generation of experts were ridiculed, is the prototype of the modern Smartphone, not least by reason of the intuitive user interface and the associated user experience. But just as Apple fans swear by the ipad and iphone, there is the Android-faction that favours the user interface that dominates the world market in terms of numbers the Android-Smartphone. When someone has a favourite device, they don't like to have to do without it in the office, and they often find it difficult to have to use another kind of device for work. For example, any iphone user who has to take a call on a Samsung Galaxy will know exactly what we are talking about. On an iphone, you have to press the green button, something Samsung has done away with. There are two different systems that people reluctantly have to get used to. What is more, the wide range of functions on today's Smartphones can only lead to higher productivity if people are really familiar with them and can use them efficiently. Of course, the same goes for introducing and using Tablets. The following simple example shows how BYOD can support and simplify operations in communications: A business that does not use the BYOD concept is setting up a team for a specific project that consists of both its own employees and external contractors. In order to establish a professional communication system for the whole team, the firm's IT department has to integrate all the external team members' Smartphones and Notebooks into the company network as best they can. A separate address has to be set up and installed on every individual device. This requires considerable effort both on the part of the company and the external team leaders. Having to integrate new Smartphones into the company is even more difficult. The company either gives out company mobile phones to the contractors, or they use their own phones to call the team and clients. The former is inconvenient, as no one wants to carry two phones about with them; the latter can lead to huge mobile phone bills. What is more, people using their own Smartphones often dislike having to give their private number out to businesses. NFON 3

4 their own devices. They can usually connect their Smartphones, Tablets and Notebooks to the employer's communications system within a few minutes using a username and password. The app for NFON's applicable Software can be found free of charge, for example, in Apple, Google, RIM or Microsoft App-Stores. The project team is up and running straight away. Third parties are not able to distinguish between external and internal employees. Communication follows seamlessly. HOW IS THE BYOD TREND FARING IN GENERAL IN THE GERMAN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT? The following is a complete market overview of German businesses: 80% of German businesses already sanction the use of private devices on the company network. In turn, wherever BYOD is allowed, 80% of em ployees use their own devices. Conclusion: Private devices are already being used under the BYOD system in 64% of German businesses. Half, i.e. 32 %, of these personal devices are Smartphones. Notebooks and Tablets, and Desk top PCs make up a third, or 10%, of the rest. Personal Smartphones are used for phone calls in 90% of all cases, followed by writing s. In most cases, businesses do not want it to be too obvious to their clients that they are using external contractors. Furthermore, when the project is finished, employers do not want their clients to have the external contractors' own contact details, as this could lead to the contractor competing for new or follow-up business. If client have access to a contractor's direct contact number, it could lead to loss of customers. Conclusion: the Smartphone is clearly the BYOD device of choice and is mostly used for telecommunications. Source: Dell survey of 400 German businesses, 2012 With business that use BYOD, external employees simply install the applicable software from familiar App-Stores onto 4 NFON

5 GERMAN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES ARE AT THE VANGUARD OF THE BYOD TREND! Here is an overview of German small and mediumsized businesses in comparison with the whole market: 66 % of Smartphone users in small and mediumsized businesses use their personal devices at work. 56 % of Tablet users in these businesses use their own Tablets at work. Conclusion: German small and medium-sized businesses are playing a significant roll as forerunners of BYOD, with 66% using Smartphones (32% of the total market) and 56 % Tablets (c. 10% of the total market). Source: Forrester Study; 2012 FURTHERMORE, ABSOLUTE USER FI- GURES SHOW THAT, WITH BYOD, WE ARE ONLY JUST SEEING THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! Here is an overview of all users in Germany: Only 40% of all mobile devices used in Germany are Smartphones. Only 5% of all PCs used in Germany are Tablets. Conclusion: Market saturation of Smartphones and Tablets is just in its infancy. Source: comscore Study; 2011 External contractors integrate seamlessly into project teams with the NFON app. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN THE WORKPLACE WITH NFON SOLUTION NFON's communications solution has always been independent of the device used, and many manufacturers of IP Systems telephones are certified for use with NFON's solution. As well as Snom and Aastra DeTeWe, the choice of device offered by the cloud provider also includes Siemens, Samsung and Panasonic telephones. Wireless DECT telephones from Gigaset, Polycom Kirk and Panasonic complete the portfolio. The same goes for the connection of mobile devices such as Smartphones. With numerous CTI applications, Softphones or the 'NFON Mobile' Application for mobile devices, NFON takes account of the full extent of the BYOD development. Today, the applications allow for convenient calling with all the latest features, such as access to the company telephone directory, caller lists, call diversion, hold function, callforwarding, call-back feature, alternating calls and conference calling. The Application 'NFON Mobile', available in App-Stores, runs, among others, on the following systems: ios Android RIM Symbian A Smartphone that is integrated into the NFON solution receives its own business number, which is an NFON fixed line number, and thus has two identities at its disposal: a mobile number from the mobile network provider, and an employer's fixed line number. If an employee is still expecting an important business call in the evening, he can take the call and then deactivate the fixed line number afterwards at the push of a button. Incoming business calls will then go to voice mail, and will be sent to the mobile phone as audio data by . In practice, NFON's complete communications solution is thereby independent of the end-user device. NFON 5

6 NFON's performance features demonstrate the intelligence of the solution and are installed on the respective mobile or fixed line devices, and simply un-installed as necessary - because employees, whether internal or external, leave companies at some point and have to leave their mobile number with the company (as already shown in the example of the external workers on the project team). In this way, NFON provides businesses with the technical basis for installation of BYOD throughout their companies. Further planned development and upgrading of the NFON app functions ensure the necessary security of investment and future viability. Because even if, in many businesses, the personal Smartphone is at the forefront of telephony today, tomorrow it will be other communications media such as and Chat. BYOD is leading to a technological change in the workplace, which NFON is facilitating with a comprehensive communications solution and developing along with its customers. Because in the future, users of NFON apps will also be able to use , fax and Chat on their mobile devices. With the appropriate app, every NFON solution is therefore almost the "soul" of the communication application, the device only the "body". " device will become a personal communications station, which brings together all the important channels of communication and does not pass on any personal contact information such as mobile telephone numbers to third parties. In this way, BYOD has become the catalyst for Unified Communications, as, although many companies have been involved in the roll out of Unified Communications up to now, in practice, the bundling of communications media is not yet a reality in most cases. NOT IF BUT WHEN! For businesses, it is certainly no longer a question of whether they will join the BYOD trend, but rather that of how and, above all, when. The industry analyst Gartner itself believes this to be the case, and recommends that businesses start really getting to grips with the issue. Employers will appear especially attractive to young highflyers if they make it known that the use of personal devices is an integral part of their IT strategy. With NFON, we have been following the principles of this trend from the very beginning. A whole range of phones from Siemens, Polycom, Snom, Aastra DeTeWe or Panasonic can be used with NFON's telephone system. At 6 NFON

7 first, we called this 'manufacturer-independent', but technically speaking, it was the same thing 'use whatever device you want!' Strictly speaking, BYOD is the continuation of the 'manufacturer-independent' principle, by which the employee brings his own personal device into business communications. With NFON, the use of personal devices and the clear distinction between personal and business communication is both simple and convenient. Furthermore, companies wanting to allow their employees access to their IT infrastructure, for example in order to access data bases with their personal Smartphones or Tablets, should, in addition, check out the existing IT security features. The flip side of the coin to this attractive trend is the oftquoted health risk to employees of being permanently contactable, (as is the case in the wider environment when using personal Smartphones), if it is not properly controlled by managers. NFON actively supports this regulation, as the employee can, at any time, by a touch of a button, disable the reachability at the office number. WHAT COMES AFTER BYOD? The origins of BYOD lie in the rapid development of Smartphones and Tablets, which initially found success in the private sphere. In most cases, private Smartphones outclass those belonging to companies' own IT departments both in convenience and technology. But what would happen if IT departments were to follow this trend and introduce equally high-quality Smartphones or Tablets for their employees to use? At NFON, we are giving IT managers a good reason to do so, and are developing a new solution whereby every Tablet can become a complete systems telephone in the workplace. Conventional telephone systems either have small screens that only display a few functions, or large screens that show more functions, but which cost much more than most Tablets and lag well behind them in terms of performance. So, instead of investing in expensive telephone systems, it is even more worthwhile to invest in Tablets which, with NFON, are vastly superior to telephone systems in terms of scope and convenience, which take over complete and convenient management of the systems telephone and can also be taken home by employees for personal use. This will please employees will because, as previously mentioned (comscore Studie 2011), market saturation of tablet PCs in Germany is still only 5%. Take advantage of what BYOD has to offer. Feel free to contact us, and we will be happy to support you in introducing BYOD to your business. Conclusion: with NFON's communications solution, you can ring in the next round of technological changes in the workplace and even go a step further and set your own trend in motion:tycd - Take Your Company Device the ball is in your court. Jürgen Städing, VP Products (Prokura), NFON AG NFON 7

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