A SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando Review. BYOD Customer Panel: Managing Personal Devices in Your Enterprise

We didn’t want you to miss out on the SAP Runs SAP activities so our regular writer Bill Kozel shadowed many of these events to make sure you didn’t miss any of the interesting and fun things that happened.

His first piece is about the BYOD Customer Panel: Managing Personal Devices in Your Enterprise

Wednesday, May 16, 2:00 p.m.

Moderator:

Philippe Winthrop, Enterprise Mobility Foundation

Panelists:

Michael Golz, CIO, Americas, SAP

Mark Reynolds, VP IT Architecture/Infrastructure, Fossil

John Dutsar, Director, Information Technology, Pepperidge Farm

In this customer panel discussion, the topic was “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies and strategies.

On the topic of security, Michael commented, “We have a master policy and consent form that we ask people to sign. We have the authority to wipe the device if that’s necessary to protect the company.”

John commented, “It gets down to the incremental risk. You can do a good job of preventing access to the given systems, but once data gets extracted from them, it’s a matter of what happens to it. That’s the bigger thing that keeps us up at night.”

Mark said his company’s policy is simple: “For a BYO device, it will not be on the corporate network.”

On the topic of employee demand, the panelists agreed that BYOD policies contribute to employee engagement, value, and retention. Mark said that Fossil has found that employees value the freedom that their devices provide. “People say, ‘Now I have much more work/life balance and flexibility.’”

As a final word of advice on a BYOD policy, Michael said, “My advice would be get clarity on why you would like to implement it. What is the scope of what you would like to enable? From that, determine what you need to manage from a security perspective and determine the policy and consent form aspects of that. Don’t run into it with your eyes closed.”

He concluded, “I personally think the flexibility reason and lifestyle aspects have become so important that it’s almost inevitable. At some point it’s going to hit you, so be prepared.”