It’s a Free Country... ...So why can’t I pick the technology I use in the office?
Great article from the Wall Street Journal on employee choice of hardware devices (e.g. laptop, smartphone, etc.)
Inside IBM, we have an open client computing policy which allows any client device to be used for business purposes with management approval and adherence with IBM corporate security requirements. Like many other customers, we are exploring an "IT allowance program" for employees to select the client hardware that best meets their needs.
Source: WSJ
At the office, you've got a sluggish computer running aging software, and the email system routinely badgers you to delete messages after you blow through the storage limits set by your IT department. Searching your company's internal Web site feels like being teleported back to the pre-Google era of irrelevant search results.
At home, though, you zip into the 21st century. You've got a slick, late-model computer and an email account with seemingly inexhaustible storage space. And while Web search engines don't always figure out exactly what you're looking for, they're practically clairvoyant compared with your company intranet.
Inside IBM, we have an open client computing policy which allows any client device to be used for business purposes with management approval and adherence with IBM corporate security requirements. Like many other customers, we are exploring an "IT allowance program" for employees to select the client hardware that best meets their needs.
Source: WSJ
1) Flexibility
The IBM approach is one of those things that every so often makes me thing "this is a great place to work". (Especially when I compare IBM's approach with some of my customers' very tight controls.) I loved the fact that it only took me about half an hour to set up my Macintosh at home to log into IBM and use essentially any business system I need to use. (Although the price I paid was that it leaves me in the pretty unusual position of being a person running a Mac with active anti-virus software.) Now, in the best of all possible worlds, IBM would also be paying for my home Mac. But that's perhaps a bit too much to dream for.
Anthony Holmes 11/16/2009 10:03:40 PM2) It’s a Free Country... ...So why can’t I pick the technology I use in the office?
Some aspects of the concept are interesting, but even the WSJ article gives only a slight nod to a key issue that IBM continually misses in discussions with me as their customer. Industries that are regulated and/or litigated - which is a list that will likely grow, not shrink - have serious obligations regarding the data they manage.
For example, if corporate, especially customer, data is on a workstation that is compromised, a number of regulations require "disclosure" of that security breach. In many cases, resulting in negative articles in the WSJ... hmm - maybe the WSJ article is intended to help generate more "news" ;-)
Further, that "wonderful" virtually limitless storage on a public eMail system, when multiplied by 10's of thousands of users, becomes a huge liability to Search when presented with legal discovery orders. Forget the "result" of whether what is found is beneficial or damaging, the cost of searching - and review by qualified legal staff - is staggering.
Tim Haugen 11/17/2009 7:29:49 AM3) Flexibility
Thanks Anthony. AV software is required on Macs that are used for business purposes at IBM. While the numbers are relatively small, there are IBM-owned Macs inside IBM. As interest in the Mac for business continues to grow, I expect IBM's Macintosh population to continue to grow.
Christopher Pepin 11/23/2009 3:49:54 PM4) It’s a Free Country... ...So why can’t I pick the technology I use in the office?
One of the big advantages of IBM's open policy towards computing platform is the fact that people developing software for different platforms are more likely to understand it better. Therefore it is important that not all of our developers use exactly the same platform e.g. you will do a better job of designing the MAC version of your product if you have personal experience of using a MAC for your day to day work.
Brian O’Donovan 11/25/2009 2:58:12 AM