BYO...laptop?

BYOD..."Bring-Your-Own-Device" seems to be the biggest strategy that companies are now trying to master. Employees expect to be able to bring their own mobile phones, laptops and tablets into the office setting without having a "company device" to also manage but having the convenience of using their own device from home. Sure this seems quite convenient, and maybe cuts some costs here and there, but what does this really mean for companies?

We have outlined some new challenges that will come with this policy from The Globe and Mail's article that provides some more insight on how BYOD will change your business:

 Some issues that IT may run into:

- Employees expect the same degree of advanced technology and services integration in the workplace that they already experience in their personal life

- Employees may threaten you "give me the advanced technology that I know I can have, or I will do it myself"

Aberdeen Group found that the top 20% of performers (defined as Best-in-Class organizations):

- provide mobile access to almost all employees

- recover all but 5% of lost or stolen mobile devices
- improved their personal speed of decision-making by 14% over the prior 12 months, 3.5 times the improvement of Industry Average

Is your company in this top 20%?

If your business has not thought about BYOD or even a mobile strategy as a plan for the next coming months, you are sure to face some struggle with the new demands of the "tech savvy" employee.

To find out some more benefits and reasons to Go-Mobile, check out our previous posts on mobility and our event slides from a previous event we held in Waterloo based on building a mobile strategy NOW!

 

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Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2012: Toronto

Last week, the City of Toronto was flooded with more than 16, 000 people representing Microsoft Partners from all over the world! Partners from coast to coast took  part in the biggest ever Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). 
WPC travels the globe to take place in a new city every year giving Microsoft Partners a chance to discover the latest technology and trends to come in the year ahead. It also provides a valuable forum to gain industry knowledge, and learn new strategies to ensure Microsoft Partners, like Ideaca, can continuously deliver the highest standards of care and information to our customers.


This year, the conference was held in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre and the Air Canada Centre. The conference was said to bring in the most traffic throughout the GTA that Toronto has ever seen for a conference, and even brought in a whooping $500 million to the City of Toronto! 

Each day Ideacans experienced  dozens of sessions and key note speakers that helped us to learn new strategies and product knowledge. There were even a few ground-breaking announcements, such as a demonstration shown on Kinnect that scanned a person to virtually produce them in 3D, then their 3D image was printed out into a 3D mold!  Truly a thing to see!  We also spotted new laptops that can convert into a tablet; which will be beneficial to all those stubborn people who cannot part without their keyboards. There was also a great deal of hype around the new Windows 8 phone and operating system that is sure to make many smartphone and Windows 7 users change their mind about what they currently have. Windows CMO and CFO Tami Reller announced at the conference that the new Windows 8 operating system will be launch in 231 markets worldwide, starting in October 2012.

The 5-day conference kicked off with a stunning performance by Cirque du Soleil and wrapped up Thursday night with a packed concert by the Grammy Award winning band Train. What a week! Ideaca is proud to have been apart of it and we look forward to sharing our new learning with our customers in the year to come.

Were you at WPC this year? What was your favourite part?
 

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