Enterprise Mobility Summit 2014: 'There's no ROI in BYOD'

'Not a cost play' says UBS head of client-facing mobile Paul Whitby

BYOD is "not a cost play", and should not be approached with any expectation of a return on investment (ROI), UBS Bank's London and US head of client-facing technology for mobile, Paul Whitby, told an audience at Computing's Enterprise Mobility Summit 2014 in London today.

"BYOD is about convenience to your members of staff and their work-life balance – it's not a cost play," said Whitby.

"I don't believe there's savings to be had here."

In a keynote entitled "Is BYOD dead?", Whitby argued that the concept of employees bringing their own productivity devices into the office was very much alive, and was in fact "the future of mobile provision for most people", as well as a movement that will "see an end to corporate BlackBerry handsets".

But Whitby warned that good BYOD policy still requires significant investment.

"This all needs investment in policies, and to make sure it both supports the business and protects it from the [security] threats we face today," he said.

Whitby said that companies need a BYOD policy in order to attract and retain staff, but shouldn't look at it as a way to save money.

"There's no ROI," he said. "You can make all sorts of business case guesses about ‘If I save 15 minutes a day per member of staff, and I've got 60-odd thousand people, and I shorten or extend the working day, how much does that save in terms of staff costs?' And you can end up with millions and millions and millions [of pounds] to justify it, but I think it's much more about meeting the expectations of kids coming into the office about working where they want.

"It's as much about expectation and retention as it is about financial and productivity benefits."