Financial Services Still a BYOD Leader: Good Technology Survey

Following up on a 2011 report of the same name, Good Technology's State of BYOD report finds financial institutions continuing broad support of bring-your-own-device initiatives.

Forty of the 98 respondents to a customer survey by the company, which offers enterprise mobility security software, came from the financial services/insurance segment. Within that sample, 35 said they currently support BYOD, four more said they would within six months, and the last said it would within three months.

"The Financial Service/Insurance and Healthcare industries continue to be among the biggest supporters of BYOD," Good's report says.

Why BYOD was the story of the year in insurance

By far, the most popular model for BYOD at financial institutions is for employees to purchase and pay for their own device with the company offering support in the form of access to corporate systems. More than half of the financial services companies that responded to Good's survey reported using that model. However, the next-most popular is a model where the enterprise reimburses users for "eligible expenses" up to a point.

"In nearly all of the expense-back environments, prior management approval of employee expenses was required and there was a fixed cap on expenses to help control costs. This expense back and cap model offers tremendous cost-savings for companies that switch from a company-owned device model, which can cost on average $60-100 per device," Good said in its report.

For company-owed devices, most respondents from the finance/insurance segment reported that the cost to IT is in the $61 to $80 range. However, costs were reported as high as $150 for those devices, Good reports.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio