Resource Article: The Individual-Liable Device Challenge

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies magazine

As consumers embrace mobile technology, more businesses have had to address the issue of employees accessing corporate data on their personal mobile computers and smartphones. While allowing the use of these individual-liable (as opposed to corporate-liable) devices could help improve productivity and reduce costs, they present challenges. MDM software helps enterprise IT departments manage personal and company-owned devices and their operating platforms. According to an Aberdeen survey on wireless expense management, 72% of responding companies allowed some level of individual-liable device use. On average, 23% of devices within these companies were individual-liable.

Some companies resist allowing individual-liable device usage because of the IT headaches it can cause. "We are seeing customers allow them for certain applications or ban them because they're not ready and not prepared to support the devices," says Joe Granda, executive vice president of marketing at Syclo. The biggest drivers for companies that do allow individual-liable devices are employee requests and cost savings.