Philippe Winthrop wrote an article, and proposed the term COPE (yes, another acronym) to describe another way to manage consumerization of IT: Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled.
“The IT department would provide you ANY mobile device you want…that’s because they have embraced the Consumerization of IT. However, as opposed to trying to find a way to secure the corporate data that will reside on the employees’ personal devices, why not instead provide the employees a means to put some personal content on their work devices? The device (and the corporate data that resides on it) is fully managed and controlled, but also allows for employees to install the apps they like for their personal use. We already see this in many organizations where employees are installing their favorite media players and their music or personal photos on their laptops…so why not extend that to the other mobile devices? Aren’t they already COPE-ing with those laptops?
There are other benefits that come from the COPE model that you won’t find from BYOD. The original premise of BYOD was (in one respect) to help reduce corporate expenses. Made sense when you’re looking to cut costs. However, the only way in my opinion where BYOD can truly be cost effective, is if the employee pays for their devices and the totality of their service plans. Too often I see companies fully reimburse the price of the device, or the service plans or make employees fill out a reimbursement form to get their monthly stipend. There are zero economies of scale in these scenarios that truly provide long term cost savings to the organization. On the flip side, through savvy Wireless Expense Management, organizations leveraging the COPE model could negotiate great contracts with the wireless carriers to get steep discounts on devices, upgrades, as well as voice, data and messaging plans.”