CIOs can’t stop staff using unapproved devices

Businesses are allowing unapproved devices to be used within their business as workers increasingly want to use their own computers at work before companies draw up bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies.

This is diverting attention away from IT projects. A total of 44% of IT managers said that handling issues around staff bringing their own devices was wasting time and reducing the time spent on other IT projects.

According to research commissioned by Cisco and carried out by Redshift Research, 48% of the 1,500 IT managers in Europe and North America surveyed said their businesses would never authorise the use of employees’ own devices. But it also revealed that 57% believed workers are using their own devices without permission.

Furthermore, over half (51%) of those interviewed said that the number of workers bringing their own devices to work was increasing.

The US reported the highest number of businesses where workers were using their own devices without consent, with 63% of IT managers saying this was the case.

Despite the distraction, most CIOs support schemes to allow employees to use their own devices at work, according to the Technology Industry Survey 2012 of 650 IT professionals, conducted by IT recruitment firm Mortimer Spinks and Computer Weekly. 

The survey revealed that 60% of CIOs and CTOs think employees owning and operating their own IT equipment would be a good thing for the IT department.

Photo courtesy of Paul Mayne on Flickr