How to Deliver on the Promise of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Did you miss our recent webinar, Delivering on the Promise of BYOD, hosted by Ahmed Datoo? No sweat! Read on for a recap below, then watch a recording of the webinar to learn how you can create compelling content for your employees and truly deliver on the promise of BYOD.

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It’s easy to see why BYOD (bring your own device) in recent years has taken corporations by storm. ZDNet states that 74% of companies already support or plan to support BYOD, and Gartner predicts 50% of employers will require BYOD by 2017. Mobile technology is not only increasingly integrated with how we work, but also becoming more reliant for everyday tasks. Between the flexibility to work anytime and anywhere, to cloud innovations enabling increased efficiencies and productivity, the benefits of mobile in the workplace are undeniable and often substantial.

The BYOD Promise

From the outset, there was a great deal of optimism and promise around BYOD and mobile. Initial demand was driven by employees who wanted flexibility to use their device of choice. Employer support gradually followed due to the benefits: the ability to streamline and deliver communication to employees on devices they’re comfortable with, as well as cost savings in mobile equipment.

The BYOD Reality

It didn’t take long for enterprises and employees alike to realize one of the more significant advantages of mobile in the workplace: the ability to access real time information anytime and anywhere. But this realization also revealed a major gap. To best understand the BYOD gap, we simply need to look at the disparity in user experience between that as a consumer compared against the enterprise.

From a personal experience, users are accustomed to visiting any number of modern consumer websites—be it CNN, Apple, Yahoo, and the like—and encounter a robust and engaging experience. Content on these sites are optimized for mobile devices, and are full of rich multimedia content such as videos, slideshows, polls, and other interactive elements.

However, it’s a much different story when it comes to the enterprise experience. Users primarily access enterprise content by retrieving documents from their email or intranet such as Word, PPT, or PDF files. Content is typically static and flat, and mostly text-based. These traditional file formats display poorly on mobile devices, and require users to pinch and zoom their way through the document. You can surely forget about videos or other interactive features as well.

Efforts to Solve the BYOD Content Gap

Some organizations are attempting to solve the BYOD content gap by building custom mobile apps, but many are in fact solving the wrong problem. The culprit in the mobile content gap is simply how employees are accessing enterprise content—via traditional file formats in the form of Word and PDF files—which were intended for desktops dominant in the 90s. Today, many workers are no longer tied to a desk, yet we’re still using files optimized for a desktop experience on our mobile devices. Mobile + Files = Poor User Experience.s

Bridging the Gap Between the BYOD Promise and Reality

To truly bridge the gap between the BYOD promise and reality, the answer is actually rather simple. Companies need to provide employees with compelling digital content via their mobile devices—and it starts with ditching that legacy technology, aka “files.” Continue now to watch a recording of the webinar to find out how you can deliver a meaningful and engaging mobile experience that your employees are accustomed to, complete with videos, slideshows, quizzes, and more. The replay also includes a demo from Ahmed, as well as a Q&A with attendees.