Over the past few years, consumer devices have flooded the enterprise, and with them has come about a change in mobile device policies. In enterprise mobility’s infancy, most companies took a corporate-liable (CL) approach: all devices and monthly contracts were paid for by the enterprise, and IT chose which brands and models were supported. With the increased consumerization and democratization of smartphone use in the enterprise, the individual-liable (IL) device policy emerged: employees connect their personal devices to the enterprise network, and their companies choose to reimburse some, all, or none of the cost of the devices and monthly contracts.
With more consumer devices coming to market each month, and with the introduction of the iPad and all the tablet computers that followed, more employees want the freedom to choose which devices they connect to the enterprise network. Are enterprises accommodating this desire, or are they sticking to their CL roots?
To answer these questions, we conducted an online survey in March 2011 with Mobile Enterprise subscribers entitled “Are Your Mobile Devices Corporate-Owned or Individual-Liable?” The 117 enterprise executives who responded represent corporations, government agencies, healthcare organizations, and educational institutions in North America across a range of verticals and all corporate sizes.
The mobile device liability models covered in this survey are defined as: corporate-liable (employer provides employee with device, pays all bills); individual-liable/fully reimbursed (employee buys device, monthly contract is fully reimbursed by employer); individual-liable/partially reimbursed (employee buys device and receives fixed monthly reimbursement from employer); completely individual-liable (employee pays for device and monthly contract and receives no reimbursement from employer), and hybrid (a combination of CL, IL/fully reimbursed, IL/partially reimbursed, and completely IL).
Device liability by the numbers
This survey is a follow-up to a similar survey that we conducted last year on the same topic, and there were some staggering differences.
To read the rest of this article, including the full results of the Device Liability Survey, head over to Mobile Enterprise.
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