Asian companies reluctant to adopt BYOD – Ben Cavender

Allowing your employees to bring their own devices into their work place (BYOD), might sound as a ideal way to save cost, but many Asian companies hold back, says Shanghai-based business analyst Ben Cavender in ZDnet, as costs might be higher than the savings.

ZDnet:

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives might be more costly than was previously thought, and the extra expenditure is one reason why Asian companies are holding back from embracing the idea of allowing consumer devices into the workplace.

Ben Cavender, associate principal at China Market Research Group (CMR), said companies in the region recognize they may save money on reduced hardware spend when employees use their personal computing devices for work. But they are also increasingly aware those savings might not be enough to cover the cost for supporting multiple device platforms and managing their access to the corporate network in the long run.

One example of additional costs is in data plans. Cavender explained that companies can no longer negotiate corporate or group discounts for devices, services and data plans, and paying for a large number of individual subscription plan is almost always more expensive than a bundled service contract…

As such, cost, together with “very real fears” over data security, information loss and unauthorized access, are causing companies to hold back on implementing BYOD initiatives, Cavender said.

More in ZDnet.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

This week, on November 22, the China Weekly Hangout is about the future of nuclear power in China. You can register at our event page here. (Two weeks earlier we missed the change in daylight saving time in the US and had to cancel.) First part will focus on the resumption of building nuclear power stations, the second part of the chances NIMBY protests can derail this ambitious program. Planned participants: Richard Brubaker and Chris Brown.

Over the summer, we discussed with Ben Cavender the mistakes some foreign companies make in China when they try to localize their products.