Mobile trend leading to positives and challenges for companies

Increased mobile device usage presents advantages and challenges for businesses that are beginning to allow their employees to use their personal devices for work purposes. The BYOD policies companies are offering allow these enterprises to take advantage of powerful cloud-based services to unify communications, although protecting company information can require careful consideration and innovative solutions.

According to Computerworld, IT departments are increasingly seeking mobile device management, internal app libraries and mobile security solutions.

"BYO is a principle that most organizations will adopt, and [they] must prepare for this change," said Gartner analyst Nick Jones. CIOs must prepare BYOD programs "sooner than they realize," he added. Gartner predicts that sales of smartphones will reach 645 million in 2012, which would be up from the 461 million reported in 2011, according to Computerworld.

The source stated that communication habits are evolving from batch mode to near real-time. This means Americans are likely to use more smartphones because they facilitate immediate communication. Smartphones will become the primary communication and computing device in the future, Computerworld predicted.

"As mobile devices continue to gain traction in the enterprise, more executives and high-level managers are leveraging mobile technology to conduct critical business on the go," said Monica Basso, research vice president of Gartner's Mobile and Client Computing, Mobility and Collaboration team. "While the ability to edit and update documents on the fly is a key business need, it can also leave a company's most sensitive information at risk. To effectively collaborate and protect important documents being shared or accessed via mobile devices, security must start at the document level and follow the document where ever it goes."

Despite the security challenges posed by an increasingly mobile workplace, the pros are likely to outweigh the cons. According to NetworkWorld, another reason for companies adopting BYOD is because it may save companies money. Offering employees the option of using their own mobile devices and issuing a stipend as an employee benefit may cut down on the cost of employer-supplied mobile devices. This policy has recently reduced cellular costs for Holly Hunt, a Chicago-based design company, by 5 percent.