BYOD Means Soaring IT Support Costs for Mobile Devices

Computerworld: According to a new report from Osterman Research, enterprises can expect to pay 48 percent more to manage their smartphone fleets next year, thanks in large part to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. On average, companies needed 2.9 full-time IT workers per 1,000 mobile devices in 2011 and 3.6 full-time workers per 1,000 devices in 2012. That number could climb to 4 full-time workers per 1,000 devices in 2013. On an annual basis, that means enterprises will be paying $339 per smartphone user by next year.

The report also found that an increasing number of enterprises plan to deploy Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions. In a survey, 32 percent of enterprises that did not currently have MDM solutions in place planned to deploy MDM by 2013, and another 24 percent planned to do so by 2014.