Mobile madness

Now, I like holidays, I like subsidised coffee and stationery and I like my iPhone/BlackBerry/Windows Phone (delete as applicable - maybe start with the last one?) But which one is best? There's only one way to find out! FIIIIIIIIIIIGGGHHHHHT!

Oh, no, wait; there is another way of finding out, thanks to the good folk at Kelton Research. The market watcher was commissioned by SAP subsidiary Sybase to conduct a survey looking at how much employees value being able to choose what mobile devices they work on. Quite a bit, as it goes.

Of the 500 UK and US workers surveyed, half want the freedom to choose what device they use for work purposes. Some 71 per cent of these people would gladly give up one of the perks of their job to enjoy this freedom.

An eyebrow-raising 58 per cent would lose free coffee, while a surprising 39 per cent would give up free food and 30 per cent would gladly buy their own office supplies. An astonishing 26 per cent would forego free parking, while a frankly mental 20 per cent would happily trade one of their paid holiday days just to use their own mobile device at work. Righty-ho.

On top of the implications concerning the sanity of the average UK worker, all this mobility madness could have grave consequences for the security of our nation's businesses. Imagine my horror to hear that one in four employees has sent and received work-related emails on their personal device?!?! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But, fear not!

"There are solutions to address these concerns," sez Sybase, "such as Sybase Afaria, the industry's leading mobile device management and security solution."

Thanks, guys - I can't tell how big a load that is off my mind. Unfortunately, in the name of progress, I let my staff decide which mobile device management and security solution we should implement at Dodgi, and they all said they wanted something - anything - else.