Trusted IT solutions provider's BYOD survey reveals that while adoption is growing, businesses are yet to secure their corporate boundaries.

London, England – 25th June 2013 – Insight UK's second annual BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) survey, published today, reveals that security, specifically data loss (72 per cent), is still the biggest issue concerning IT departments with regard to the uptake of personal mobile device proliferation in the workplace. Yet, despite this, 55 per cent of respondents to the survey have no plan to launch a BYOD policy to inform employees of how they should protect business data on personal devices and alleviate worries about the use of technology such as iPads.

Security still remains top priority for all respondents, with concerns over data loss, privacy, misuse and theft of devices all featuring to some degree in the results of the survey of over 200 corporate professionals including senior executives, Managing Directors and IT Managers, from across a broad range of sectors including education, finance, media, pharmaceuticals, public sector and IT itself.

This comes despite almost three quarters (73 per cent) of businesses questioned issuing mobile devices (smartphone or tablet) themselves. Interestingly, a further third (27 per cent) allow employees to bring their own personal devices and connect to either the corporate or a guest network to view, edit, and save corporate documentation, and most importantly allow it to leave the safety of the office network.

Increased support for Windows and IOS devices; Android and BlackBerry a second tier

Currently 26 per cent of IT departments support just iOS and Windows mobile device operating systems
Going forward, IT departments intend to support these further, with Apple devices (38 per cent) and Windows (29 per cent) featuring the most in IT department plans
Android and BlackBerry devices are almost comparable in terms of how support is planned moving forwards, with Android (17 per cent) just one percent ahead of BlackBerry (16 per cent)

Simplification and support top of mind behind security

While security (82 per cent) is top of the to-do list, IT departments are determined to make device integration into existing corporate IT systems a priority (60 per cent) while increasing internal know-how and providing support for BYOD users is a close third (52 per cent)
Until BYOD usage is made easier and support in place, businesses are less concerned (35 per cent) with increasing the availability and breadth of applications available to staff through corporate application stores and through existing consumer channels

Sales and new business teams still most likely to adopt personal devices successfully for business use.

58 per cent of sales staff benefit from having mobile devices to access and display corporate documents on the go
IT departments (44 per cent) are the second most likely to see an uptake in productivity from use tablets, with Customer Service (35 per cent) and Marketing (26 per cent) teams also seeing strong use cases for the technology

Inclusion important to successful adoption

Almost two thirds (60 per cent) of respondents include all staff, no matter what their job function or status, when considering implementing a BYOD strategy
Worryingly, 22 per cent only consider the need of their senior executives when evaluating policy and provision for mobile devices and smart phones

Ashley Gatehouse, VP EMEA Marketing, Insight, said: "It's interesting to note that a year down the line almost three quarters of those businesses surveyed have seemingly moved to tackle this trend by issuing their own devices to employees and you'd think that means those allowing BYOD would now have their ducks in a line when it comes to policies surrounding this."

He added: "To hear almost half have no plans to create a policy is clearly at odds with the raft of measures we know businesses already have in place to protect the flow of data within the corporate network. Failure to implement a policy or define rules regarding the use of personal devices at this stage of proceedings is tantamount to leaving the back door wide open and hoping you don't get robbed."

About Insight:

Insight EMEA is a division of Insight Enterprises, Inc., a leading provider of brand-name information technology ("IT") hardware, software and services to large enterprises, small to medium-sized businesses and public sector institutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Insight is focused on helping organisations move technology goals forward in the areas of Cloud, Virtualisation, Data Centre, Unified Communication & Collaboration, Networking & Security, Data Protection, Mobility & Point of Sale, and Office Productivity. Insight has sold over seven million business and public sector client cloud seats across the globe. With approximately 5,200 teammates worldwide, Insight is ranked No. 483 on the 2014 Fortune 500 and generated sales of $5.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2013.

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