Corporate Owned, Personal Enabled, is a business mantra that is becoming extremely popular in the workplace today. It is one of those rare policies that has witnessed an enthusiastic response from both app development companies and their employees. Let us analyse COPE, a policy which I believe has the capability to change the face of the workplace today.
COPE, as the name suggests is a business model, where enterprises give employees devices of their choice during their stay with the company. The employee is free to personalise it and use it for his personal purposes, but control over data on the phone is retained with the enterprise. This is an improved version of the Bring Your Own Device policy (BYOD), where the company can ensure privacy of data.
The COPE policy is usually implemented in one of two ways. Some companies issue the same device to all employees, to ensure uniformity in user experience and interface. This is an easier way to manage configuration and deployment for the company. When implemented this way, the employees do not get to choose their device, but still are allowed to personalise it as they wish. The more popular form of implementation, is when the office simply sets a budget, and allows the employees to pick their own phones. This ensures a variety of platforms, versions and devices for app development and testing. Also, it has been found that employees’ comfort and productivity sky rockets when they are working on a personal device of their choice. Hence most enterprises prefer go with the latter.
When it comes to cost, COPE is an ideal option. Though the introduction of BYOD was to cut costs, where each app developer pays for and brings in his own device, it evolved into a model were employees bought devices for which companies foot the bill. Under the COPE policy, the company would be buying devices in bulk which is a great way to write off taxes and avail great deals for devices at wholesale prices.
Security is the COPE policy’s biggest success. While employees do carry sensitive information with them home, the enterprise still retains the control. It is well within their right to remotely wipe off all data if they feel the device is being abused. Also, when an employee leaves the company, he is forced to leave his device behind. Yes, it is not a fool proof plan, but it sure has come a long way since BYOD.
With a lot of enterprises experimenting with business strategies, COPE has always come out with flying colours. It truly is a win-win for the enterprise and app developers and is a business model to place your bets on.
