In corporations and government agencies across the country, it is pretty much mainstay for employees to be issued on their first day of work the following items:
- A uniform cell phone with a homogeneous talk/text/data plan;
- A desktop with an operating system and apps the IT department supports and;
- A laptop for those individuals who travel or are part of the C-Suite.
Usually the employee’s monthly cell bill is paid for by the organization and when the employee departs, they have to turn in both the phone and the laptop. Life is easy for purchasing and IT personnel alike. But the future is looking a lot murkier as employees become more tech savvy and the price of said technology continues to decrease.
According to Gartner, Inc., an information technology research and advisory company, in the not-so-distant-future Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is going to be prevalent in the workplace. Their research states the following will occur:
- 50% of all employees will be using their own mobile devices at work by 2017
- 38% of organizations will stop providing mobile devices to their employees by 2016
- 22% of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) say they have already made a strong case for this option.
“If you are offering BYOD, take advantage of the opportunity to show the rest of the organization the benefits it will bring to them and to the business,” stated David Willis, Chief of Research, Mobility and Communications at Gartner.
So, how will BYOD inadvertently affect meetings and events? Here are three things to consider as you look to the future:
APPLICATION COMPATIBILITY
With a plethora of mobile devices in the marketplace and even more to be announced in the next three years, it is important to recognize that not all mobile devices are alike. In fact with different screen sizes and pixel definitions, it will become increasingly difficult to find apps that run across multiple platforms.
The Solution: Rent iPads which have thousands of apps ready to load onto the system. In addition, if you have one mobile platform versus several, hardware and software support become much easier to achieve.
BANDWIDTH OVERLOAD
Many meeting venues have limited IP addresses, access points and bandwidth. Mobile devices have weaker antennas than laptops and require shorter interval access points. In addition, with the average attendee carrying three devices with them to a meeting, it is quite possible if you are not prepared adequately, your bandwidth can come to a crawl or even crash.
The Solution: For many meeting planners, understanding your Internet needs is like trying to understand the workings of a computer. You know you need the computer to do your job, but you don’t know (or for that matter want to know) the internal workings. The same goes for your Wi-Fi needs. When renting audio visual equipment, it is in your best interest to find a partner who understand IT and can determine whether or not you need a Wi-Fi network array rental in order to meet your bandwidth needs.
SECURITY
Security is the top concern among CIOs when it comes to BYOD as it should be with any event organizer.
The Solution: Having dedicated bandwidth at the venue, as well as, augmenting it with a Wi-Fi network array rental unit will help keep your data secure.