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March 22, 2013 By Bill Maile
Whether in the state of Washington, or in China, Taiwan or Australia, government workers using their own smart phones on the job is on the rise, according to Joel Cherkis, general manager of Microsoft’s worldwide public sector business.
“We see the model of the ‘bring your own device’ [BYOD] concept [used] heavily within governments around the world,” said Cherkis this week via phone, discussing his upcoming keynote address on March 28 at the Mobile Government Forum in Sacramento, Calif.
Cherkis, pictured at left, who routinely travels abroad for work, says that significant technology investments are being made by government organizations to implement BYOD policies, despite such challenges related to security, governance and sometimes even politics.
After 20 years of working in the public-sector technology industry, Cherkis says we are still at the “front end” of a long journey that includes fast changing technologies driven by the consumer market, in large part because those who work in government are consumers when they leave at the end of the day.
Cherkis also emphasized using mobile technology to promote citizen engagement and enable leaders in government. For government leaders, the ability to access accurate and timely information using a mobile device, with a dashboard or scorecard app, is critical for making decisions quickly.
Citizen engagement is a top priority for many governments, including the state of California. Cherkis said that citizens expect to reach their government from anywhere, at anytime. He used an example of his home state of Washington where, if you want to launch your boat from a public ramp, there is a mobile app that allows boaters to buy a license without having to visit the agency in person.
Another example given was Sacramento Regional Transit’s mobile app that tells bus riders where the closest bus stop is and when the next bus will arrive. The app, developed by Kiefer Consulting, also includes images that show the user what it looks like from the view of the bus rider.
“These type of apps are of great interest to people who want to use public transportation,” said Cherkis. “They are also of great interest to organizations who want to get people to use public transportation. Organizations that are focused on greener or more sustainable types of environments.”
This story was originally published at Techwire.net
Photo of Joel Cherkis courtesy of Twitter/Joel Cherkis | Main photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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The growing mobility of the workforce combined with the explosion in the variety of mobile devices (not to mention BYOD) has created major challenges for IT staff. How do they secure sensitive data? How do they manage all those different types of devices? How do they connect employees and their devices with corporate applications? Download this free white paper for some additional ideas on managing security and BYOD: http://www.ericom.com/WP-MobileAccessSecurity.asp?URL_ID=708 Please note that I work for Ericom
On the other side - employees are expected to pay out of their own pocket for high end devices and then employers and IT departments take them over, load them up with spyware and security apps, control and restrict people's use of their own property, and spy on every aspect of their personal life.