Demand for iOS devices helps drive enterprise mobility strategy

Companies transitioning to iOS devices as part of a CYOD program can expect a suspicious number of “wet BlackBerries” turned in, according to AirWatch's A/NZ chief Rob Roe.

The tongue-in-cheek remark was made during a panel session at the recent AirWatch Connect conference in response to a panellist discussing how their organisation saw increased uptake of company-owned devices since the release of the iPhone 6.

"The idea is when your BlackBerry breaks, you got a new iOS device, so suddenly you have a whole bunch of wet BlackBerries... watch out for that!" said Roe, referring to staff returning waterlogged devices.

Gary Adler, head of IT for the Australian arm of Herbert Smith Freehills, said the switch to iOS devices and, more specifically, the release of the iPhone 6 helped the law firm to achieve enhanced user buy-in for their choose-your-own-device (CYOD) and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs.

Adler joked that lawyers at the firm were "dropping their BlackBerries in the toilet" in order to upgrade.

“We do still run a hybrid model, and lawyers are still quite tethered to BlackBerries … but outside of that the move to BYOD is increasing day by day and with more demand for new devices.”

ANZ Bank also saw great user buy-in once iOS devices were readily catered for on the financial institution’s BYOD and CYOD policies.

“Buy-in wasn't a big challenge for us, we had about 16,000 people who wanted to use their own device for email and text and calendar etc.,” said Malcolm Breadmore, ANZ’s senior manager, end user services.

“Then of course with company-owned devices, we’d go through and replace BlackBerries and the ‘dumb phones’, for want of a better word, and be handing out iPhones, including iPhone 6s. I feel like Santa Claus sometimes!”

Breadmore said ANZ Bank are starting to consider mobile device management (MDM) with BYOD before moving to focus on a company-owned solution to “build momentum, to get the platform out there,” before returning to BYOD again.

“The challenge will be to get those people who don’t want BYOD… to feel compensated.”

Adler said one of the biggest challenges for Herbert Smith Freehills was creating policies on compliance for BYO devices versus the traditional company-owned model.

“What we decided was BlackBerry devices supplied by us will be free… but if you want to go down the route of BYOD then you have to pay for your own device, and there was a lot of debate over that internally,” said Adler.

Getting security managers for Herbert Smith Freehills on board also proved challenging, along with general user compliance, but it helped that many of the firm’s top clients were setting an example by taking on new enterprise mobility strategies, including ANZ Bank.

“Since we’re a bank, security is always paramount. Traditionally we take a device, lock it down, wrap it in chains, put padlocks on it, a 20-digit passcode to get onto it – which of course was never going to work from a usability perspective,” said Breadmore.

He adds that the shifting the paradigm from locking the device down to instead locking the data and containerisation has brought about its own challenges, and that bringing security teams along on that journey has “not been fun and games”, but approaching it from a business perspective allowed ANZ to follow the right strategy.

“We were representing the business… we knew that our executives in the business didn't want to have eight-digit passcodes to get onto the device and then another eight-digit code to get onto email, that’s just impractical. So the voice of the consumer and the hierarchy really helped us.”