 Market research - Bring your own device | |
h2index has been carrying out some market research of its own recently, speaking to selected key clients, all multinationals with over 10,000 employees, to find out what research they might be interested in sharing with other global companies. The clear favourite was the whole "consumerisation of IT" issue or "bring your own device (BYOD)": viewing your users as consumers whose preferences need to be satisfied rather than employees whose usage can be controlled.
The drivers for this change are complex:
- IT managers are considering BYOD because congenial devices make staff more likely to work anywhere, any time: this is good for productivity. IT managers also recognise that BYOD is not for everybody: some staff will always want standard services.
- Large multinationals frequently collaborate with specialised business partners across all areas of their enterprise. In conversation, h2index found several examples of companies with more external than internal people working for them through these partnerships. The only practical way of enabling this many people to have the IT access required is to allow them to use their own device. The cost of providing them all with computers is prohibitive.
- In their quest to attract, and hang onto, the brightest and best brains, companies realise prospective employees (and staff) judge them by the quality of the smartphones, tablets and laptops they provide. Chunky kit and clunky practices are a major turn-off. Similarly these new staff members expect to be wooed with sophisticated social media functionality: security rarely crosses their minds. As people blend home, office and mobile working, any notion of multiple devices is increasingly unattractive. The boundary between personal and business device is disappearing and companies are working hard to remove such barriers.
Talking to senior IT managers, it is clear that their primary concern with BYOD is security. The emphasis is moving from restricting and policing, to providing company services that are better than the alternatives thus removing users' incentive to stray. We also see companies starting to segregate users, applications and data according to their security sensitivity and then match access and permissions accordingly, rather than relying on the device to manage the security.
The h2index research will examine all of these issues and more, including the drivers, user needs, real examples of BYOD implementation and the consequent value proposition.
The study is taking place in Q3 2012 and companies are invited to join on the basis of sharing the costs. If you would like to take part, please reply to this email.
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| Process: the new hot topic (again) |
Large multinational companies are expert in process management, but h2index has recently noticed a significant increase in conversations about different dimensions of process: global and multi-provider.
Global
A major consumer goods company has retained h2index to help them to globalise IT management, specifically the processes. The overall intent is clear and h2index is working with the senior team to develop the delivery model. We will help by contributing our knowledge of best practice in other multinationals with globalised operations and processes.
Multiple providers
A second instance is a technology and manufacturing multinational, which is interested in looking at process maturity particularly where a process spans multiple providers. h2index is still discussing the form of this research but an interesting aspect might be scoring key processes against attributes such as SLA consistency, success in running end-to-end, and innovation. This could enable the development of a Maturity Model, similar to the Outsourcing Model we established in our recent infrastructure sourcing research.
What's going on with process? Are you looking at it closely too? If you would like some help or would be interested to know what other majors have done and are doing, give us a call.
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Forum: Microsoft Office 365
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h2index facilitated the thirteenth European forum for enterprise users of Microsoft Office 365 (whose service scope is Exchange, SharePoint and Lync) on the 9th and 10th May 2012 hosted by Novartis in Basel. The other attendees were Aviva, Nokia, GlaxoSmithKline and Shell. This customer-led group is unusual because although Microsoft attends, it does not sponsor the forum or define the agenda.
 The first day focused upon the practical issues of performance, operations and process. The second day concentrated upon policy, direction, and how customers derive business value from the service.
Over the life of this forum, the group has provided input to Microsoft's Service Management as a Service (SMaaS) team to improve Microsoft Office 365 and, during this time, considerable progress has been made.
The group is in its fourth year and the criterion for membership is to be either using, or committed to using, Microsoft Office 365. There is a small annual charge. Meetings are constructed so that senior Microsoft managers participate and engage with the group directly on the issues of the moment.
The European Group meets next on 25th July 2012. The meeting is being hosted by Shell at their offices in The Hague.
Interested in joining our forums?
Our forums are designed for large scale enterprises (tens of thousands of employees), operating in multiple countries. We work hard to ensure that the organizations in any one forum are of similar scale, face similar issues, and involve senior representatives directly responsible for the specific topic. If you would like to join any of our forums, please reply to this email.
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Participants wanted - "white glove services"
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h2index is continually undertaking research for its clients and each project requires a panel of representative organisations.
 White glove services
A large research-led manufacturing company has asked h2index to benchmark their executive support systems for VIP managers against their peers. The company provides this service to their top 200 staff and this support ensures they are kept productive and connected wherever they are in the world.
Our client wants to know if, and how, other multinationals offer similar services and the extent to which VIPs are covered by standard end user support. They are also keen to find out if senior managers are part of the spread of new technology. Do senior executives use non-standard devices such as tablets or non-standard services such as Skype? Have any of these subsequently become adopted as standard throughout the company?
Our client is open to other companies shaping this study and sharing the cost; co-sponsors will receive a detailed analysis tailored to their company's particular circumstances.
If you are interested in being a co-sponsor or participating, please reply to this email.
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If you found our newsletter useful, please forward it to colleagues who may also be interested. We are always delighted to receive feedback. Kind regards Phil Hopley and Simon Bennett www.h2index.com +44 (0) 1737 830993
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