My plan after business school was to better understand how companies create, implement, and learn from strategic initiatives. I moved to New York and joined what was then called Andersen Consulting Strategic Services in 1998. One of my early mentors coached me to be very mindful of how the strategies we recommend had immediate impacts on people, process, and product solutions that may need to be implemented. A simple illustration on a cocktail napkin below served as a discussion framework after a long, first day with the client.

I find myself talking through the above with people today regarding their enterprise mobility strategy. I am a fan of the following definition: a strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty and limited resources.

A customer in the packaging and supply chain business recently provided a great example of the cocktail napkin illustration from many years ago:

My strategy and goal is to modernize the way our sales team presents and closes business with our customers…from laptops, paper and reconnecting only when in the office to interactive iPad presentations and approvals wirelessly sent from the customer site…by delivering our secured apps and documents through our existing network drives, SharePoint and VPN infrastructure…without the need to introduce new data center installs or redundant content management systems that require new people training, testing, and maintenance.

His enterprise mobility strategy had tied in people, process, and product considerations in a way that mitigates the risks associated with times of uncertainty and limited resources. Well played! Even though we have all kinds of new technology today, I remind myself of that cocktail napkin conversation over beers in 1998.

 

We need Democratization of BYOD (aka bring-your-own-device).

Let’s recognize there is still real tension between the people who want to have choice in the computing device they are allowed to use to get work done and the smaller group of people whose job is to deliver and protect company assets. We can call the first group by many names: end users, mobile knowledge workers, or simply employees. We can call the second group many different shades of IT entrusted with application delivery to security to network performance.

Tension between these two groups still widely exists despite initial BYOD programs delivered via desktop virtualization and mobile device management solutions. End users still need access to all applications and data on the mobile device of their choice, increasingly on tablets, without IT having access to records of personal activity and ability to remote wipe all data from personal devices. IT still lives in the reality to maximize existing infrastructure and assets because budgets remain tight, risk still exists in deploying more appliances, data liability is real-time, and end users continue to demand more access to applications to get their work done on mobile devices. “Mobile first enterprise” is very worthy going forward, but let’s not forget the vast investments already made within a company with intranets and data behind firewalls.

I believe the Democratization of BYOD has these foundational elements:

• Access for the many and not the few
• Voices for improvement should be heard and quickly implemented
• Information that benefits all is readily available and easily shared

The above is applicable to end users and IT, executives to field agents. I believe Democratization of BYOD is possible to once and for all eliminate the tensions within a company. How can this be achieved?

ACCESS FOR THE MANY AND NOT THE FEW

Access comes from simultaneously orchestrating networks, devices, and applications:

• Networks: I believe that many companies already have the infrastructure needed to implement a democratized BYOD program. If web technologies is the most ubiquitous manner to access applications, companies with SSL-VPN and authentication systems (e.g. Microsoft Active Directory or RSA tokens) already deployed have the infrastructure needed; let’s leverage that instead of adding a new appliance in the data center.

• Applications: most companies have invested countless dollars and time integrating backend systems (e.g. email and contacts, financials, ERP, secured file sharing) into business workflows accessed through web applications. You can make an argument that native mobile applications on tablet devices may have more functionality. But I would make the point that web applications are catching up in its usability with all the benefits of leveraging a larger available pool of web versus native mobile application development resources.

• Devices: tablets dramatically minimize the need to rewrite existing applications with its larger form factor. Access for the many and not the few also means that mobile applications should be accessible by all via a public app store.

Making it happen: No new installs in the data center; use existing SSL-VPN and web applications. Separate the control and data planes of activity. Control via SaaS. Data directly between a single native, mobile application serving as a dedicated workspace connected to existing security and authentication systems.

VOICES FOR CHANGE SHOULD BE HEARD AND QUICKLY IMPLEMENTED

Feedback and requests can often be viewed as unwanted demands and added work scope with inadequate lead time. This causes internal tension. We have heard many voices for improvement reflecting how people want to work on mobile devices under three broad categories:

Personal

• For the applications and documents that I use the most behind firewalls, can I get them displayed front-and-center
• I buy-my-own-device, so remote wipe should at most apply to the data and applications used exclusively for work
• Access to personal usage data on my device is intrusive

Seamless

• I want to login once and access many applications; multiple logins stifle productivity
• Links to documents in file systems behind the firewall always break
• New applications need to be added quickly

Immersive

• Traversing multiple browser tabs or standalone app authentication to complete work is cumbersome
• Can I stay within a single, mobile workspace on my tablet device for both applications and documents

Democratization of BYOD should not require disrupting your business just to add new applications or users. Implementation of new applications and policies can involve clicks and configuration, not necessarily always new native application development for each mobile platform.

Making it happen: Provide a personal, seamless, and immersive user experience via a single mobile application that serves as a dedicated workspace for applications and documents. Utilize a SaaS console to quickly add, delete, and manage applications and users.

INFORMATION THAT BENEFITS ALL IS READILY AVAILABLE AND SHARED

Information related to personal activity on personally owned mobile devices should stay personal. Information related to work applications and documents can provide valuable visibility into actual end user experience, comparison to user performance compared with peers, and early warning signs that predict failures. This type of granular information about work applications and documents on personally owned mobile devices is not easily accessible and shared today. I am not talking about protecting privacy, but rather providing the information that enables people for the Democratization of BYOD to advocate for more applications to be accessed, network improvements to be made to get work done in a more efficient and timely manner.

Making it happen: Use a native mobile application that contains a data collection agent that captures application and document usage, network performance to provide data that leads to informed decisions from operations improvements to compliance audits.

Access for the many and not the few. Voices for improvement should be heard and quickly implemented. Information that benefits all is readily available and easily shared. These are core principles that excite me about being a founder of our new company.