The freedom of mobile choice

Smartphones and tablets have revolutionised the way people access information, and it is no surprise that they have also become popular amongst company employees, with many bringing them to the workplace or on the road. In Pakistan where over five million mobile phone customers have a smartphone or tablet and the number is gradually increasing with the introduction of newer and budget-oriented smartphones and tablets, the concept BYOD is gaining traction.

Bring Your Own Device or BYOD which simply explained is the ability of mobile worker bringing their own mobile devices, such as smartphones, laptops and PDAs, into the workplace for use and connectivity. However, there is more to it than just shifting device ownership to employees. Challenges like data security, limited control over hardware resources and their usage, need a comprehensive IT policy covering all such aspects.

Ahsen Javed, Managing Director, Oracle Pakistan and South Asia Growth Economies – West, shared his thoughts on the trend and explained how organisations can address complex challenges of BYOD:

Q: What was your reaction when you first heard about the proliferation of Bring-Your-Own-Devices (BYOD) in local businesses?

A: It’s amazing how fast this trend accelerated, particularly with C-level executives pushing for iPads and the latest smartphones.

The consumerisation of IT is rapidly gaining momentum in the enterprise. Telecom reports show that there are 18 million (86.5%) mobile phone customers and an estimated 500,000 have a smartphone, with this proportion of Sri Lankans already owning a smartphone device of some sort and with mobile operators offering phone and data plans where smartphone and tablet devices are included for free, consumers are in a position (and are often more willing) to update their devices at a speed that even the larger enterprises can’t compete with. There are also generational factors at play. Gen Y employees, the first ‘digital natives’, expect to access corporate applications, starting with email to more complex enterprise systems, quickly and easily from their iPhone and iPad.

Q: What opportunities are available for businesses who decide to adopt a BYOD approach?

A: Mobile devices and applications are in now in workers’ everyday lives and enterprises have a great opportunity to improve engagement and productivity of its workers by engaging with their mobile needs. BYOD offers an enterprise the option of mobilising its workforce, potentially faster than it would be able to otherwise and then by doing this, increase its workforce productivity.

It makes sense to start extending enterprise applications to mobile devices that make a real impact on the bottom line, such as workflow applications, CRM, ERP and BI, because their users typically comprise of decision-makers in the field, such as sales personnel, store and territory managers.

An example is within the utility sector, where customer service representatives, dispatchers, and technicians must be in sync with one another at all times. And all personnel must have access to timely information about the status to keep customers satisfied. Mobile workforce management solutions optimise the service chain, improve workforce productivity, and reduce operating expenses while reducing missed appointments and service backlogs.

While cost savings can be substantial, most of our customers tell us that employee productivity gains are the real goal here and we’re seeing those goals being realised.

Q: In turn, what challenges should businesses be aware of with BYOD?

A: Security is the top concern we hear. You have less control than before. The headlines portray the risk as malware on the latest smartphones, but the bigger risk is that you’re opening up critical applications with terabytes of data to a whole new class of devices. The challenge is granting access to employee devices without compromising the overall security of that critical infrastructure.

In a survey of more 3,000 mobile phone subscribers worldwide, 68 per cent were either unsure or convinced that data stored or transmitted by their mobile phones was unsecure, according to a recent Oracle study. Numerous corporate users rely on these devices to access day-to-day business apps and data. It has been estimated by some studies that nearly 85% of these devices are unmanaged by IT and hence unsecured. Loss or theft of these mobile devices could result in security breaches. This is no different from loss or theft of traditional laptops.

The problem is compounded when mobile devices are also used for personal use and, as such, deemed accessible to third parties such as one’s family and friends who may access the device for recreational purposes even though corporate data resides on it. This can inadvertently lead to sensitive data being compromised.

Q: What is your company doing to address these challenges?

A: Oracle is committed to ensuring on-the-go workers can be more productive across all Oracle products. Not one mobility strategy fits all and there are a number of approaches to take that Oracle supports with the right solutions, depending on an organisation’s IT systems, applications portfolio and the demographics of its mobile workforce. Some examples are outlined below:

Virtualisation/Thin Client: Desktop virtualisation with Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is not only more manageable than traditional desktop architectures, it is more flexible as well. The software allows users to access the same desktop environment from many different client devices and locations, enabling disaster recovery, remote office and work from home, and green computing through the use of low power thin client devices. Oracle’s next generation Thin Client technology, Sun Ray Clients, help reduce latency by only accessing the required data and the security levels are well above standard  ( not sure what an optimum level is supposed to mean) with none of the data actually stored locally on the device. This offering extends to “soft clients” which can be used in conjunction with devices such as iPads.

Applications and Middleware: Applications built with Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile provide organisations mobile capabilities they need for mission critical sales success. Oracle is leveraging the upcoming Oracle ADF Mobile platform (part of Oracle Fusion Middleware) to innovate and deliver new and industry-defining applications across the entire enterprise.

Oracle ADF-based applications help enable enterprises across industries to meet frequently changing mobile requirements by allowing developers to rapidly and visually develop applications once, and then deploy to multiple devices and channels.

Oracle Mobile BI, for example, is developed on the Apple iOS and can be downloaded from the app store, but it uses device-specific rendering to display BI content, so IT departments don’t have to create separate mobile-only versions of reports and dashboards.

Identity management: Addressing the inherent security risks of BYOD, Oracle also recommends protecting critical data assets with Identity Management solutions to help overcome the challenge of securing multiple types of devices and applications on the corporate intranet and beyond.

Solutions such as Oracle Access Management Suite Plus can provide one of the most complete end-to-end security solutions in the industry, providing components that protect applications, data, documents, and cloud-based services on multiple devices through an innovative combination of flexible authentication and single sign-on, identity federation, risk-based authentication, proactive enterprise fraud prevention, information rights management, and fine-grained authorisation.