Firms are wary of BYOD but confident they can deliver flexible working

Despite greater awareness of the potential benefits of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), especially as a way of supporting flexible workers, a large number of European firms remain concerned about the security implications of the practice, according to a new study by HP of their attitudes to workplace technology. The study of 1,130 organisations in eight European countries found half believe that BYOD was likely to compromise their organisation and of those firms who had already implemented the practice, a fifth had experienced at least one security breach in the preceding year. In addition, fewer than half (43 percent) are confident that personal devices are properly secure, with a third (36 percent) expressing specific concerns about the contamination of networks with malware and viruses.

The report also found that just under a quarter (24 percent) of respondents believe their company has a workplace technology strategy that allows them to be fully prepared for flexible working practices with under a tenth (8 percent) feeling they were not prepared at all. Interestingly, respondents also believe that the desktop PC will continue to be the main business hardware over the next five years, with around half (46 percent) of employees still using them by 2020 despite a marked increase in the use of tablets and smartphones over the same period.  The use of notebooks is expected to be 29 percent in 2020, the same as present levels.