Bring Your Own Computer (to work, that is)
A new trend in IT management is emerging. It’s called BYOC, and it’s an excellent idea where everyone wins. Nicholas Roussos writes: “Looking at the thread, the common complaint is, ‘How are we IT guys supposed to fix XYZ?’ Umm, that’s the whole point. The IT department is no longer responsible for upkeeping these machines. They just run the servers, network, etc. At the very least, it might force companies to hire people who know how to use the tools they were hired to use.”
3 Comments
There are good and bad points to having people bring their own computers to work. On the good side, the practice ensures that people have the computer and the software that they’re used to, and hopefully increases the odds of getting people who know how to maintain their computers.
On the bad side, from the employee’s perspective, this becomes one more way to erase the line between work and Real Life, and it means that the employee is now required to support the employer financially, in the form of some fairly expensive equipment. Do you also require the employee to pay for his own software licenses?
On the bad side, from the company’s perspective, this means bringing the same computers into your network that your employees’ kids may be using to run Kazaa and play online games. Viruses go from a risk to a fait accomplii, and the difficulty of protecting everyone else’s computers becomes vastly more difficult. There’s also the liability question: how do you ensure that your employees aren’t using pirated software for company business, and, since they probably are, how do you ensure that the company isn’t liable? And how do you ever protect your company’s copyrighted code, trade secrets, and various information that should be covered under an NDA, when you’re not merely allowing but requiring that that information be stored on computers that your company doesn’t own?
In a small start-up company, having employees use their own computers may be a great benefit, but for an IT administrator or a company lawyer, it’s a nightmare.
I don’t think “anonmymous” up here understands the scope of the company you’re talking about. If you require MS Office for work, then the company should pay for that. The point is the IT admin isn’t responsible for telling you how to change the font. Obviously there are certain security worries, but basically if someone says they know how to use a computer, then they best know how to use it. Be clear with them about piracy on the computers you bring. We don’t have to assume that every piece of software people use is pirated.
The technology committee on our campus is discussing this very thing right now. There are people who think IT employees should have to fix their computers, and there are those who don’t.
I didn’t really know what I thought about it before, but Nicholas makes a really good point. An employee who knows how to upkeep his computer is very valuable these days . . .