Choose Your Own Device (CYOD)

A More Equitable and Convenient Mobile Administration Model

The Decline of BYOD

Industry data has confirmed companies are retreating from a strong commitment to using personal liable devices in a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) model. According to a study by CompTIA, 53% of companies surveyed in 2015 said they weren’t using BYOD any more, a significant increase from 34% of companies in 2013.

The initial onslaught of BYOD was precipitated by a number of causes including company angst over supporting ‘consumer’ devices, security concerns, rapid growth with a lack of control around mobile expenses and mobile expense management tools lagging in BYOD functionality.

What has led to the decline in BYOD? Much has changed since the early versions of iOS and Android devices. Today, security concerns are more adequately addressed in the core operating systems complimented with a multiplicity of Mobile Device Management software tools. A Recent court case over the responsibility corporations have to business mobility charges, along with employee push back on the oppressive demands of BYOD support has resulted in more practical approaches.

The Emergence of CYOD

One of the more practical solutions has revealed itself as a CYOD ‘Choose’ rather than a BYOD ‘Bring’ approach where corporations are providing a broader corporate liable catalog of desirable mobile devices. In addition, companies are defining policies and business rules on who pays for what portion of the expense. Many forward thinking organizations have determined equitable means of sharing costs by asking employees to contribute the remainder of handset charges over a fixed company contribution and/or singling out personal usage expense for reimbursement to the company on monthly invoices.

1) Employee Cost Sharing on Handsets – For example, companies may provide up to $100 toward the cost of a wireless device and any excess charge on smartphones is the responsibility of the employee. An employee can choose the most elaborate device available and the companies cost exposure is limited to that of a low-end device. This approach can be configured to protect the company from absorbing any damaged device charges. If the device needs to be replaced before it has met its upgrade eligibility date, the employee would have to cover the entire replacement cost of ‘their’ chosen device. In these situations a company may choose to amortize the lump sum amount across multiple monthly recapture transactions, or at the individuals choice they may mitigate their exposure by purchasing device damage insurance.

2) Employee Cost Sharing on Personal Expenses – Similar boundaries can be set for the monthly costs. With the policy management business intelligence capabilities of MobilSentry™ companies can define rules that categorize personal international expenses, download charges, and excessive text or data usage as personal expenses to be automatically captured each month from an employee’s payroll or stored credit card.

If company policy states all personal mobile charges will be captured by the company, the likelihood of these types of personal expenses on a corporate-liable device would be greatly reduced. It just takes one employee with hundreds of dollars deducted from a paycheck to create a bullet proof culture of prudence around personal travel and personal streaming data usage.

Equitable Solutions for Data Pooling

Another recent development making CYOD even more desirable is the arrival of data pool plans for business. Data pool plans usually include unlimited voice and texting so overuse behaviors no longer require management oversight. Data usage can be less intuitive than texting or voice, but it makes it easier for companies to create boundaries for costs which can be shared with the employee. Companies who use a Mobile Expense Management tool like MobilSentry™ know data pool usage can be equitably spread by the tool across pool members. Depending on the formula selected, the aberrant overuse of data can be made painful or the cost can be enough to get manager and employee attention. Companies can also set limits on reasonable data usage which if exceeded can result in cost penalties. Methods of sharing the cost will quickly become corporate mobile culture when employees come to understand the reality of errors made by the first unlucky offender.

What makes our vision unique? We are entering a new era of cost sharing and many companies are finding their ability to share mobile costs is at a new high. We provide the opportunity to set boundaries and share costs in a defined and predictable way.