Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
On Monday I read the Federal Computer Week feature titled “Flexibility is the New Norm.” I thought the timing was apropos since we were finalizing this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report giving a deeper look at the needs behind enterprise mobility. The purpose of the report is to define the behavior and characteristics of the mobile workforce. This quarter’s report is themed around productivity, and we asked questions about the mobile employees’ work week, how often they telecommute, what tools aid productivity, what tools detract from productivity and does mobile technology have any impact on work/life balance.
We live in a high tech bubble, particularly in some urban areas, so when I talked with my colleagues about the results, the response was — so what? Workplace flexibility has been the norm for us since we learned to use a Palm (I had a Visor!) and got our DSL up and running at home more than 9 years ago. Several people admitted to being obsessive mobile device users (you know who you are!), and this does impact their work/life balance. Most people telecommute at least occasionally, everyone works 45 hours or more a week … that seems to be the nature of working in the high tech industry or living in that environment.
I guess my point is that no industry is immune to the changes taking place as the nature of work changes. Our 1,400 survey respondents and our usage data from half a million mobile workers represent a mobile workforce that spans industries. It’s a workforce also in a demographic shift. But the Federal Computer Week article got me thinking. Even for most slow moving industries, workplace flexibility has become the new norm.
If an enterprise decides to accept the fact that every employee is now a potential mobile user, then to embrace mobility it must understand that there are different segments of mobile workers. Policy and mobile technology cannot be a one-size-fits–all approach. The mobile maniacs who check their smartphone obsessively during downtime, and work 60 hours or more a week, may have different needs and job roles than the minimalists who work less hours, have less off-hour demands, and who view personal time, as just that; personal time.
Take a look at the report and see if you can find your segment >>
Enterprise mobility segmentation – the iPass Mobile Workforce Report >>
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
What Is Meant by “Liability”?
There are many types of liability associated with owning and using a smartphone, including financial, regulatory, compliance, privacy, and legal liability, to name just a few. Financial liability is perhaps the easiest to understand. It would seem obvious that paying for individual liable (IL) carrier plans would be the responsibility of the employee. But what if the employee racks up a $5000 bill on a three-week business trip to Europe? And what if that employee uses a corporate liable (CL) phone to conduct an illegal activity with large financial consequences, like using the camera feature to take a picture of a competitor’s confidential documents?
If you are in an industry with stiff regulatory and compliance considerations, it would be more likely that stronger controls and CL smartphones would be the norm. Of course, it is the data on that phone, and not the phone itself, that needs to be managed. In a larger company with adequate IT staffing, keeping sensitive data away from the phone with specialized software and firewalls is relatively easy. But what about smaller companies that allow phone access to company records on the company’s private intranet?
Financial services and medical companies can have very high financial and legal ramifications for misuse of private data that might end up on a smartphone. Many of these companies require all corporate data to go through company-issued computers (and not phones) that have elaborate encryption and other data protection mechanisms. But “privacy” can have another definition. How about protection of employee-owned information that resides on a CL smartphone? Does the employer have the right to look at ALL of the data on the phone they own, even if they might happen upon some embarrassing photos?
And here’s a hypothetical “who’s liable” question. What if an employee happens to lose a next-generation prototype smartphone that is later found and sold to a technology magazine, so that the new features and technology can be “outed” to an interested public? What kind of insurance/risk management liability plan will cover THAT?
Legal Aspects of Data Ownership and Control
There is a distinct lack of legal clarity about what a company can and cannot control when it comes to smartphones. With case law lagging behind technology, how do you factor legal issues into the equation of who should own the smartphone?
Some generally accepted practices are starting to emerge. Corporate email messages and company data are owned by the company, regardless of where they reside. The company has unrestricted access to the information and can set usage policies that must be adhered to by the employee. On the other hand, courts have ruled that once this data is sent via the Webmail through a service like AOL out into the cloud, employers can lose the rights to confidentiality! The problem is multiplied exponentially if you are an international firm, because in the E.U., Japan, and Canada, all email is regarded as private to employees if it was authored by them.
Can an employer mandate control over CL or IL phones used for business purposes? One way that seems to hold up legally is through the use of employment agreements. Even if the phone is owned by the employee located in (let’s say) Canada, a well-crafted employment agreement will trump the local laws about employee privacy of business email and text messages. Of course, the employment agreement will not hold up if it is only selectively or randomly enforced, which makes the employer the bad guy if it is strictly enforced with a heavy hand. It is generally agreed upon that any policy must be well understood and “bought into” through consensus to be able to avoid lawsuits over privacy issues.
Coming next: Strategy for Mobile Devices
Or, read the full article >>
Defining “Liability” for enterprise smartphones >>
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Who Should Own the Enterprise Smartphone?
As Steven’s post pointed out a few weeks ago, enterprise smartphone liability is still heavily debated in a complex and fragmented mobility environment.
Today’s enterprises have already learned how to deal with the complexities of their mobile employees and the information carried in their laptop computers. After all, the information in those laptops is confidential and owned by the corporation. Those same complexities—and many more—now arise from the employees’ use of smartphones. Often, the data in a smartphone is just as sensitive and critical to the company as data in computers. Issues of security, compliance, legality, trust, and of course cost all need to be addressed.
All of these issues give rise to the biggest question of all—who should own the enterprise smartphone—the employee or the corporation? Smartphone use among U.S.-based information workers is expected to triple by 2013, according to Forrester Research. It seems that the decisions and strategies surrounding the control and ownership of these devices should be made sooner rather than later.
The cost of ownership is perhaps the easiest aspect to calculate. It might seem like just reimbursing an employee for a flat percentage of the bill from their own phone would be a quick and easy way to go. But there are hidden costs to consider, including the support costs of accounting, billing, and asset management, and for controlling things like overseas roaming charges. Not to mention keeping track of how and where the connection charges are occurring in the company, this can yield valuable information on the true costs of enterprise mobility.
Corporate-owned phones come with their own set of problems, like supporting the plethora of different phones and carrier types. Think again if you believe that you can just issue the same phone to everyone to control that complexity. It’s usually the best performers, the hardest employee-type to recruit, who insists on having his or her own type of phone, “because it’s worked for me in the past.”
Even though it seems obvious that there is need to control employees’ equipment and use—after all, there are hundreds of emails, calendars, documents, and confidential customer information stored on these smartphones—an increasing number of companies are loosening their hold on employee-owned handheld devices that are used for business purposes.
Today, half of the smartphones in use among U.S. and Canadian businesses are not company-issued equipment, according to a recent report from Forrester Research. Most companies are still grappling with the question of who should be liable for these devices. In this debate, there are still many unanswered questions and hidden trapdoors, including: What is meant by “liability”? What are the legal aspects that must be considered? How can I start to build a strategy that is meaningful and balances the needs of both the company and the employee?
Coming next:
- What is Meant by “Liability”?
- Legal Aspects of Data Ownership and Control
- Strategy for Mobile Devices
Or, read the full article >>
Dealing with Mobile Device Liability >>
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Christopher Linden, GM and VP of iPass Managed Network Services
Today, we want to welcome American Family Insurance to our iPass customer community. American Family is using iPass services to deliver a secure, high-bandwidth Internet-based network to 3,600 of their independent contractor agent offices. American Family is using the iPass Branch Office IP VPN Managed Network Service, utilizing both dual broadband and 3G wireless architectures. Some of their key requirements include increasing bandwidth, securing communications and adding redundancy, using active failover and real-time proactive network monitoring.
American Family Insurance selects iPass for Secure, High-Bandwidth Internet >>
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
It was announced last week that BlackBerry was adding support for Wi-Fi for the BlackBerry Mobile Voice System. In short, this allows mobile employees to have calls to their office number and extension follow them to their BlackBerry, and allow this to occur over Wi-Fi, in addition to the normal cell phone network.
Why would BlackBerry do this? I’m sure there were competitive considerations looking at the Google Android platform. More likely it was that their enterprise customers were demanding it. Unified Communications, in general, provide ability for users to maintain their ‘in office’ experience from anywhere by removing the employees’ location from the equation. You dial just one phone number or extension and reach the employee anywhere. However, the enterprise may see Unified Communication over a carrier network as costly.
Controlling enterprise mobility costs
This BlackBerry enhancement allows enterprises to manage their minutes more effectively by allowing them to prioritize Wi-Fi usage over the cell phone network. There may be instances where accessibility and quality may be better over an available Wi-Fi network than over a cell phone network.
The key question for the enterprise will be how to manage when to use the Wi-Fi network vs. when to use the cell network. The obvious choice is to prioritize the Corporate WLAN. However, Blackberry users are always on the go, and at any given time may have their devices within reach of different Wi-Fi networks, but the user may not have the time or access rights to take advantage of all of these choices.
This is where leveraging iPass on the Blackberry in conjunction with the iPass Mobile Network can provide value by providing an easy to manage and easy to use mechanism to prioritize and switch to over 140,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the globe.
RIM BlackBerry adds Wi-Fi access >>
On Monday I read the Federal Computer Week feature titled “Flexibility is the New Norm.” I thought the timing was apropos since we were finalizing this quarter’s Mobile Workforce Report giving a deeper look at the needs behind enterprise mobility. The purpose of the report is to define the behavior and characteristics of the mobile workforce. This quarter’s report is themed around productivity, and we asked questions about the mobile employees’ work week, how often they telecommute, what tools aid productivity, what tools detract from productivity and does mobile technology have any impact on work/life balance.
