No BYOD for BBC as it shies away from 'the bleeding edge' of technology

Cost-saving culture is ongoing struggle for BBC IT leaders, says data manager Simon Griffiths

The BBC is is holding back on developing a bring your own device (BYOD) strategy as it "does not like to be at the bleeding edge" of technology, the organisation's data and reporting improvement manager, Simon Griffiths, has told Computing.

Speaking at the SAP User Conference 2012 in Manchester earlier this week, Griffiths explained how, since the BBC's licence fee was frozen in 2010, there is a constant struggle between bosses and project managers over how best to invest each licence payer's £145.50.

"We have a 20 per cent cost-saving challenge across the BBC," said Griffiths. "It's 15 per cent, but you need to save more than that in order to invest and make savings. So 20 per cent is the target."

As a result, the BBC's mobile strategy is flagging, said Griffiths.

"Mobile is about engaging the audience," he added. "We can have dashboards on desktops and laptops, but I think the mobile is more difficult, though, because the BBC has to have a strategy itself."

Griffiths said he is increasingly being asked "parochially" by employees whether certain content and applications can be used on mobile devices, such as Apple iPads. "[But] strategically we've got to know that the iPad is supported properly," said Griffiths.

"It's on the agenda, particularly around process enablement. We have people in productions all over the world sometimes, and certainly the UK, but sometimes the only way they can purchase something is to get into a BBC office, log on to a BBC desktop, and place an order."

Updating such a backwards business-to-business procurement system is one of Griffiths' top priorities. But the process of selling business cases is difficult in a climate of cost-cutting.

Griffiths came to the BBC five years ago after spending time in a similar position at Shell, and found a real culture contrast.

No BYOD for BBC as it shies away from 'the bleeding edge' of technology

Cost-saving culture is ongoing struggle for BBC IT leaders, says data manager Simon Griffiths

"Generally, [at Shell], when you've put a business case together, the first question is ‘What revenue can we get out of that?' The first question at the BBC is ‘what cost can we save out of it?'.

"So that actually makes investment more difficult, because in a commercial organisation people are normally far happier if you're increasing revenue than if you're shortcutting costs. [At the BBC] you always know that, even if you're going to save 20 per cent, you're still going to fall short, because it's difficult to cut costs," said Griffiths.

"So at the BBC, the drive and the justification is different, and also the BBC doesn't see systems and finance as their key product – because it's programmes."

With BYOD specifically, Griffiths' other reservations concern endpoint security; a mobile device management solution that he feels still eludes the industry as a whole.

"[It's] a puzzle, and no one's cracked the business case yet," said Griffiths. "You need another layer of technology, whatever that means. The BBC is very protective of its environment because of what it is."

As a result, admitted Griffiths, the BBC is consciously slow to react to changes in technology, preferring to hang back and let progress establish itself before taking any risks.

"The BBC does not like to be at the bleeding edge of things," summarised Griffiths. But this leads to a degree of difficulty in managing projects.

"From a technologist's point of view, sometimes it's frustrating," said Griffiths. "Because you want to be out there using SAP Hana or whatever, but the BBC doesn't make decisions that quickly. But it's right to be cautious; it doesn't want to cause upsets."

Especially now, with the BBC still grappling with the fallout from its recent troubles involving serious allegations against former members of staff, as well as questions over its journalistic integrity. So how has this unrest affected Griffiths' world, already under fire from cost-cutting measures and slow-to-react step-change culture?

"99 per cent of the people don't get touched by that sort of thing anyway," said Griffiths.

"It's like any big corporation – there's things that happen in it that become high profile, but most people don't touch anything to do with it, and just want to get on and do their job. That's the way people are approaching it – we've still got programmes to produce."