In a prior mobility plan article: BYOD versus COPE, we touched on some of the pros and cons to two very common enterprise mobility phone plans: (1) Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and (2) Corporate Owned Personally Enabled (COPE). In this blog, we will consider another plan- Choose Your Own Device (CYOD)– which is emerging and becoming more commonplace. This is one more enterprise mobility plan option and acronym to track.
The CYOD mobility plan provides another option for enterprise expense management teams grappling to achieve the right balance between employee needs, corporate management needs, and cost.
Each of these plans have strengths and weaknesses. Let’s refresh on key highlights for the BYOD and COPE mobility plans and contrast with what a CYOD mobility plan has to offer.
BYOD Mobility Plan
The BYOD model is naturally strong on catering to employee’s personal preferences and needs, while the corporation does realize some financial operational savings. The corporation may provide partial or full compensation to the employee for a mobile device of their choosing, which benefits employees.
The corporation, however, takes on greater security risks with this model and will also incur some administrative challenges in terms of managing international usage, as data management challenges will reveal themselves across international borders.
Employees may also have some reservations about data privacy given hybrid use of their device for both personal and business purposes.
BYOD Mobility Plan Key Point
Pros:
- Employees enjoy the use of their own personal device and do not need to be burdened with another separate corporate device.
- Employers may have cost savings.
Cons:
- The lack of centralized corporate control and support most often translates to increased policy management and labor costs over the long term.
- Often cost visibility becomes lost due to submission through employee expense reports.
- There are often international data issues that present from the myriad of carriers and plans being utilized across the entire employee population.
- The enterprise management team will have less control over security, and this is generally considered the biggest drawback of this mobility plan.
- The court ruling in Cochran v. Schwan requires California employers to reimburse corporate usage of cell phones, making BYOD hard to track and measure reimbursement.
Given the decentralized nature of this type of mobility plan, many enterprise expense management teams will utilize a Managed Mobility Service (MMS) provider to help manage the program. Consider your MMS partner wisely (a topic for another day).
Takeaway:
This type of plan is alluring given its appeal to employees and reduced front-end strain on corporate procurement and support teams. Mobility use has also exploded and become so personalized that the appeal to both corporate management teams and employees is no surprise. However, there will be issues posed by the continuing trend towards globalization and there will be ongoing support management challenges to contend with. The 2014 ruling of Cochran v. Schwan greatly slowed the adoption of BYOD across the enterprise.
COPE Mobility Plan
The primary attraction to the COPE mobility plan for corporation management teams is that this plan offers very strong security given that the mobile phone is under greater corporate ownership and control. The downside for corporations is that this plan may cost more than BYOD plans to administer.
Employees will have fewer choices in terms of what device they use because of greater corporate influence over the mobility program. However, this will not typically present as a major problem given that adequate access to ubiquitous mobile devices such as the iPhone or competing Android will be available in most cases.
For most COPE plans, employees choose their carrier, plan, device and are responsible for payments. They will typically receive discounts given the company’s relationship with a carrier, but the company will own the mobile device. The employee will receive a stipend from the company and be reimbursed for most or all the cost of the service.
Employees are also permitted personal use of their device and therefore retain the same multi-use capabilities that the BYOD plan offers.
Given corporate ownership of the device, employees may also have data privacy concerns here as relates to their personal data and communications.
COPE Mobility Plan Key Points
Pros:
- Corporations can procure discounted volume purchases of devices, saving this expense from employees, while allowing employees personal use of the device.
- This is a security win for the corporation as greater control over data is maintained
- This is a Legal, IT, infrastructure, policy and process control win for the enterprise as management has control over parameters for carrier selection, plan selections, device selections and policy administration.
- The IT support teams will be able to have focused and streamlined support for specific carriers, plans, devices et cetera.
- This is a cost savings win for employees as they are relieved of direct ownership for this expense.
Cons:
- In certain cases, this could be considered a liability given the need for ongoing support and software updates et cetera.
- Some companies will restrict certain device uses and site access. (This could create tensions with employees.)
- Corporate / work-related applications are prioritized over all other applications given corporate ownership over the mobile device etc. (This could create tensions with employees.)
Takeaway:
This type of plan provides many of the benefits that end-users enjoy in terms of a BYOD plan while also taking greater care to consider real needs of the corporation. These needs include greater consideration around security and managing costs and support concerns in the aggregate for the mobility plan.
CYOD Mobility Plan
Now, let’s review the CYOD mobility model and what it has to offer in contrast to the BYOD and COPE mobility plans. This plan is most often considered in direct comparison to the BYOD mobile plan and is like a COPE mobile plan in so much as more corporate control is maintained over the plan.
How is CYOD different than BYOD?
But how is this plan different from a COPE plan, which also confers more control and authority to the corporation over management of the mobility plan? In short, the CYOD model provides great program control for the corporation while also striving to provide the employee with the options they desire and require for their respective positions.
Specifically, this model puts the responsibility for selection of devices and invoice management on the corporation (there is more handholding) but employees will have access to a plan that serves their business needs and is available for most personal uses with perhaps some restrictions. And, to reiterate, the corporation will be responsible for payments to carriers.
CYOD Mobility Plan Key Points
But how is this plan different from a COPE plan, which also confers more control and authority to the corporation over management of the mobility plan? In short, the CYOD model provides great program control for the corporation while also striving to provide the employee with the options they desire and require for their respective positions.
Specifically, this model puts the responsibility for selection of devices and invoice management on the corporation (there is more handholding) but employees will have access to a plan that serves their business needs and is available for most personal uses with perhaps some restrictions. And, to reiterate, the corporation will be responsible for payments to carriers.
Pros:
- Employees are allowed to choose from a selection of corporate pre-approved devices. (Often, through a secure and customized company portal.)
- Costs are brought under greater control given the limited number of devices offered via the corporate plan; this creates much less resource and financial strain on the IT and support team.
Cons:
- The corporation may restrict use to certain business activities only; this is a difference between many COPE plans that allow less restricted personal communications on the corporate owned device. (This could potentially create friction with employees.)
- Corporations pay increased costs for these employee devices/plans. They own it in exchange for greater plan control.
Takeaway:
The CYOD mobility model provides the corporation with more guardrails to protect its key concerns around security, process scalability, and cost management while also making a genuine effort to accommodate the desires and needs of the employee. The employee will have less responsibility but a little less choice as well.
Again, this plan functions as a type of middle ground between more traditional BYOD plans, which are primarily stipend-based and less secure and corporate-owned plans which provide much stronger security with less choice regarding device selection and approved usage.
Moving Forward
The proliferation of different mobility plans as of 2022 should come as no surprise to anyone. The exponential explosion of technology, globalization, and the desire for mobile communications has no seeming end in sight. And recent world events such as a global pandemic have naturally accelerated the proliferation of mobile technology.
Enterprise expense management and mobility management teams will need to continue to strive to balance the needs of their increasing mobile workforces with corporate management concerns. Weighing various mobile plan options will become more important than in the past as some organizations may even choose to employ more than one plan across their organizations.
In the end, each organization will have its own unique needs and priorities. We strongly recommend evaluating all mobility plan options in detail, and even consider employing multiple plans if this makes sense for your organization. A comprehensive and detailed review of your organization’s mobile footprint is well worth the effort.
To learn more about how Tellennium can assist your team with mobility management decisions, please reach to us to schedule a brief demo of our solution.
Explore More Articles
BYOD versus COPE
Enterprises have always wrestled with what they feel is the best approach in terms of handling mobile devices: Do we employ a corporate liability model such as COPE (corporate owned & personally enabled) or embrace a bring your own device (BYOD) approach, which most often utilizes a reimbursement approach and offers less corporate security? Given the shift to more
Drive Efficiencies and Cost Savings for Your Enterprise: AP Automation + Management of Things®
In today’s world, mid to large enterprises that rely on legacy TEM strategies, tactics, and technology will experience missed savings opportunities, lack of visibility, and reliance on platforms and vendors that can’t deliver all that is now vital for the enterprise. This next generation of enterprise expense management is referred to as the Management of
Key differences between WEM and MDM
Within the Telecom Expense Management (TEM) and Mobile Manages Service (MMS) industry, you often hear two acronyms bandied about which are related to mobility services and mobile devices. Let us gain clarity around the basic terminology before moving into a more comprehensive understanding of what each really entails and means given the confusion which surrounds