Sent in by Thomas Baus

Description:
In days of BYODevice, BYOTechnology, the tempting thought comes up that also using the software tools an employee wants and prefers most to achieve their daily / longterm job objectives. For example: why force employees to use a very limited and aged set of software tools, when they would even be open to bring the latest MS Office incl license to work just to get their job done?

The conflicts that of course come to mind first are around licensing, SOE constraints, security.
However, since we have – at least from a philosophic point of view – reached the age of BYOD/T we should at least consider the potentials of employees being allowed to use whatever tools (web based or not) they prefer.

Approaches taken so far:
Approaches really taken:
– just installed software on company laptop (got pushback from internal IT and obviously no support)
– request installation of tools at internal IT (of course pushback)

Approaches considered but not taken afterall:
– bring private laptop to work and copied data back and forth (of course not a good idea, security wise)

Please note: though it may sound like that, I am not  blaming the internal IT staff for these constraints as those guys most likely would be very glad also if someone would allow them the use of preferred instead pre-set tools