COPE or BYOD for Enterprise Mobility? Evaluating the Legal and Practical Implications of Each Policy Type
Veronica Gray spoke at the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium 2016 (AEIS) on Thursday, November 10 in Las Vegas.
Electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, aren’t a luxury for employees to have—in most instances they’re an absolute necessity to support the 24/7 workplace. Gartner estimated that by 2017, 50 percent of employers would require workers to supply their own devices, which lends credence to the notion that the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement of years past is still very much alive and well. BYOD, however, can create a logistical and security nightmare for IT. Thus, the question becomes, should organizations take back ownership of the devices being used for work? If employers move to a corporate owned personally enabled device (COPE) policy, will that put IT at ease, and will a COPE policy support the company’s underlying goals of maintaining productivity, controlling costs, and ensuring electronic data security? This session explored these issues and more, such as:
- The challenges of implementing the COPE model in today’s day and age—and the roadblocks you can realistically expect to come up against when setting COPE into motion
- Wiping obstacles likely to occur when there’s data on the device that the organization doesn’t own
- Productivity-related benefits of following the BYOD model—and the legal risks to be prepared to address
- The action plan for working with IT on rolling or managing COPE and BYOD policies in your workplace
- Cost considerations associated with COPE—and how to weigh those against legal and security risks you must consider
- Recommendations on where the enterprise mobility trend is heading, and the key legal and practical factors to consider concerning mobile apps, security, and management.