Managing use of consumer collaboration tools, mobile devices for work
Date: Dec 20, 2010Fearing the dangers of data security breaches, enterprises have long employed tight access restrictions on their IT and network infrastructures. But amid the growing popularity of consumer collaboration tools and mobile devices, many employees have called for more relaxed governance and increased integration of personal mobile computing devices into enterprise settings. Faced with such requests, some companies have begun to view the tried-and-true "lock it down" approach as outmoded -- and perhaps even bad for business.
In this video, SearchUnifiedCommunications.com's Rivka Little speaks with Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst of Forrester Research, about how enterprises manage their employees' use of consumer collaboration tools and mobile computing devices for business. Schadler discusses the potential value of employing technology like video for training purposes or applications like Twitter for customer communications, and addresses some key questions that network operators should ask upfront when considering a more open network strategy.
Schadler then talks about maintaining security when opening corporate practices to consumer collaboration tools and mobile computing devices, which he calls "the biggest challenge that any company faces in the consumerization of IT." He also touches on a tiered model for management of mobile devices that some enterprises are using to give employees greater freedom to integrate personal smartphones, tablets and other mobile computing devices into their daily job responsibilities.
About the speaker: Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst of Forrester Research, is the co-author of "Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business" (Harvard Business Review Press, September 2010). In the book, Schadler and co-author Josh Bernoff argue that companies can win customer trust and business by empowering employees to directly engage with and solve the problems of empowered customers using social, mobile, video and cloud Internet services.