New research commissioned by BT shows that over 80% of IT managers think enterprises with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy have a competitive advantage over other organisations. It’s a strong endorsement for allowing employees to use their own laptops, tablets and smartphones to carry out their employer’s work.

60% of employees surveyed said they are already allowed to connect personally-owned devices to the corporate network, while more than 80% of companies already allow BYOD or plan to introduce the policy within the next two years.

64% of IT managers thought that having a BYOD policy would enable employees to be more productive, 48% said it would allow employees to work more flexibly and 47% thought it would enable employees to serve customers better.

However, only 10% of IT managers think that all BYOD users recognise the risks involved. In fact, a third of employees said they see no risk in using their own device in a work context - which may help to explain why 39% of enterprises surveyed had experienced a security breach due to employees bringing in unauthorised devices.

Neil Sutton, Vice President for Global Portfolio at BT Global Services, said “The BYOD genie is out of the bottle bringing with it unprecedented opportunities for enterprises but also new threats. The new perimeter is everywhere, defined by employee-owned devices, clouds, and extranets. The risk of abuse and attack has multiplied along with this massive expansion. To meet these challenges head-on, enterprises need to have a clear policy, a combination of the right tools to implement it, the trust with which to deliver it to employees and the processes in the business that everyone understands and buys into. IT security has always been about a blend of people, policy, process and technology, and the right blend is even more critical in a BYOD world. Rather than being perceived as a barrier to agility or flexibility, security can act as an enabler which improves an organisation’s ability to adapt to the BYOD trend.”

“That’s the thinking behind BT Assure. We work with our customers to navigate the complexity and ensure they have appropriate policies, procedures, solutions in place to take advantage of the benefits presented by BYOD without compromising security.”