Working in digital means BYOD

If you are allowed to use your own personal device at work it means that your employer implemented BYOD (bring your own device) policy. It does not necessary mean that your organization is aware of the term, because BYOD was much better known a decade ago than today. It was the time when employees began complaining, that corporate mobile phones (which were in majority Blackberry devices) are not so user friendly as their privately owned, new iPhones. The discussion about security versus convenience was fierce and lasted a few years making BYOD a popular term. Finally, corporations gave the field to various kinds of smartphones and the issue got naturally solved.

BYOD in times of working from home

BYOD is not limited to smartphones. It includes also tablets, laptops, smartwatches, and any other digital gadgets one can work with. I would expect that growing demand for working from home will increase adoption of the idea. Nevertheless, employees are used to their own devices at home. The whole idea could look dangerously from data protection perspective, especially if you are not supposed to use your device for work, and had no chance to try BYOD in practice. It wouldn’t be surprise, because the trend is more popular in emerging economies than mature markets. It could change soon, however, amid more and more employees working from their homes in developed countries.

Reverse BYOD enables digital economy

Leaving a classic BYOD for a while, let me notice, that “reverse” BYOD is everywhere in digital economy. Think about mobile apps running on customer personal devices, all software installed on privately own computer, well, even privately owned TV sets on which customers watch TV programs or Netflix. It is about customers who have to use their own devices to consume services and content they bought. Old times when hardware and software where delivered in one inseparable package (like video games or personal computers in 1980s) are gone. There is nothing wrong with that, but it’s worth reminding that without customer personal devices digital economy wouldn’t fly. On-line banking was a perfect example in old years of home-banking services. The first client-server solutions actually consisted of sharing bank data with customer personal computer, at home. Internet banking required computer with standard web-browser installed – both elements were provided by customers. Mobile banking is the next level of the same reverse BYOD: personal device for using financial services. Needless to say, that banking app is one of many and fights for customer attention with such indispensable services like messaging, broadcasting, entertainment, shopping, ticketing, and payment.

Apple is different (as usual)

Yes, payments are often provided by non-banking players. Mobile wallets, e-commerce solutions, proprietary in-app payments - they all have intermediated banks from their customers. Think about success of ApplePay - the wallet app built exclusively for Apple devices which utilizes payment cards issued by majority of banks. Paying with ApplePay is easy, convenient, works almost everywhere; it does not matter which bank has issued the card, it's enough to put it into the wallet. It is interesting, that ApplePay is, to some extent, one of few exceptions from reverse BYOD philosophy. The payment works on the device which is a part of tightly closed Apple’s ecosystem. Certainly, a customer owns device, but both hardware and service are provided by the same vendor. Apple, as usual, thinks different than rest of the industry.

In digital banking it's always BYOD

Working in digital banking gives another application of BYOD. I use my personal phones (one with Android, one with iOS – for reasons I’ve explained here) to operate my banking accounts, like most of us do. Some of these accounts are held by the bank I worked in. This way every minute I spent doing my personal financial transactions on my personal mobile phone is, actually, spent at work. I can hardly count how many ideas for interface improvement came to my mind during regular self-service of banking products. So, when you are going to work in digital banking, or fintech, actually if you work in any business based on proprietary mobile app, you have to be ready for BYOD. Because using your personal phone will be the way you work. Quite convenient, right?

Did you like it? I have published some more articles about working in digital banking on my digital bankology blog.

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