Office technology still the domain of IT, as widespread ‘BYOT’ fails to catch on

London, November 4, 2011: A new survey from Casio Projectors has shown that a fifth of British workers (19%) who don’t take their own technology to work say their company ban them from using personal gadgets.

The study of 1,200 British workers, undertaken by YouGov, highlighted that nearly two thirds of respondents (63%) do not take their own technology into the workplace. Eight out of ten (81%) of those that hadn’t said they simply ‘didn’t need to’.

With so much attention surrounding the concept of ‘Bring Your Own Technology’ (BYOT), office IT teams have been shifting their approach to support new types of technology in the workplace.

But the reality of office tech is that much of it is chosen and supported centrally, meaning reliability and total cost of ownership are still the factors driving uptake, said Nieve Cavanagh, Senior Marketing Manager for Casio Projectors.

“IT managers should choose office technology to suit their users’ needs, as it seems most workers don’t have a choice in the matter,” Cavanagh said. “It’s important that people don’t get distracted by the hype around employees bringing their own devices into the office.”

“Businesses are coming under increasing pressure to prove their green credentials and CSR measures,” she added. Technology services teams should spend time focusing on the core issues facing business IT – performance, reliability, ease of use, and environmental impact of the tech they buy.”

The most popular BYOT devices to bring into work are mobile phones and laptops, with 29% and 15% of people respectively bringing these gadgets in. Just 3% bring tablet computers into their work environment.