BYOD More Likely to Increase Expenses Than Reduce Them

What are companies’ most common reason for adopting a bring your own device program (BYOD) for smartphones and tablets like iPhone, iPad and Android devices? To keep employees happy. It’s certainly not to reduce expenses. Two-thirds — 67 percent — of BYOD companies report their costs hadn’t changed since going BYOD, according to a new report by Xigo, a telecommunications expense management (TEM) company owned by Dimension Data.  Here are the details.

A full 19 percent of companies reported that they adopted BYOD to keep employees happy. Productivity improvement came in second  with 17 percent, while another 15 percent cited BYOD’s ability to lower their organization’s overall mobile spending. However, two-thirds said that spending stayed the same once BYOD was implemented. And 24 percent actually saw an increase in expenses. Only 9 percent were able to lower expenses by adopting a BYOD program.

Results also revealed that mobile phone usage is more accepted than tablets. According to the study, enterprises are more apt to subsidize mobile phone usage (50 percent) than tablet usage (30 percent). Interestingly enough, 36 percent of enterprises also claimed that they do not believe tablets will replace laptops.

The study also revealed the following findings:

• 61 percent of respondents reported that their network service plan spend has remained the same.
• 52 percent of respondents placed a mobile usage policy in place that employees must agree to and sign.
• 70 percent say their IT support costs haven’t changed.

The Xigo study of telecom professionals in North American was co-sponsored by CCMI — provider of telecom rate and data solutions and information.