Opinion: Apple puts users first in the enterprise

By Jonny Evans

Returning to the theme of Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) in the enterprise, it’s pretty clear Apple [AAPL] is seeing great big benefits as ever more businesses give employees a little autonomy to allow them to choose the tools they use. Why?

System, system

There’s plenty of statistical evidence to prove that enterprise users are switching to iOS, and, in some cases, to Mac:

-- A recent Software Usability Research Survey confirms iPad satisfaction levels are in the region of 83 percent.
-- 96 percent of businesses have at least on iPad in use (Aberdeen Group).
-- SAP now has over 3,000 corporate-owned iPhones.
-- GE now has over 1,000 Mac users, and expects this figure to rise. 10,000 employees now use iPhones.

Think back just a few short years and remember Apple had almost zero profile in business. (Though the popularity of the iPod did spark a little more interest).

You are the change

What’s driving this embrace of Apple? What’s freeing normally conservative enterprise users from their previous OS chains and restraints?

Part of the move is popularity, of course. That’s generating some pretty interesting anomalies, for example a recent Strategy Analytics survey claimed four out of ten tablets purchased by employees for use in business were purchased by them using their own funds.

Part of the secret is satisfaction. As noted previously, users love their tablets and smartphones, with Apple regarded as a premium choice. Other platforms also have their champions, of course.

Another element will be the platform’s relative maturity; its Exchange support; the diversity of the apps. These platforms can be refined for specific use.

Usability, job satisfaction and you

But there’s one more thing, and that’s a perhaps unintended but welcome reflection of the company’s focus on usability.

Apple always attempts to deliver a user-centric OS. Critics will have their problems with some of the iOS implementations, and there’s some who have not fully embraced the OS X Lion ‘experience’, but the attempt to champion the user above the limitations of the system pays dividends in many ways -- look at the satisfaction levels for proof.

Putting users first puts users in control.

That feeling of control -- let’s call it autonomy -- that feeling is invaluable. When you create a situation in which such autonomy can be felt by an employee in the workplace, you are enhancing the employee’s experience within your firm. It doesn’t matter if you’re flipping burgers or flipping files, once your basic human needs for warmth, food, sex and shelter are met, you begin to crave something different:

-- Self-realization.
-- Personal growth.
-- Empowerment.

You have to see self-realization as something a little subjective, but part of the experience of feeling it is to acquire a sense of autonomy, a sense of being in control of at least some aspects of your existence.

Does a move to bring your own device into the workplace really enhance such feelings? Take a look at these survey results and judge for yourself.

Autonomy

The BYOD trend is powerful and relevant. It should improve productivity (subject to security threats) and enables workers to make their own choices.

This is why Apple is benefiting from this trend, and why the future of enterprise computing is transforming fast. With luck, we won’t see a one-size-fits-all PC culture in future, but a heterogenous, multi-platform environment in which Apple -- and, to be fair, other systems -- play a major part.

In my opinion that’s an extremely good result for Cupertino. Certainly rather better than any analyst seemingly expected when considering that firm’s future in the enterprise.

IDG Connect released a batch of survey results last week, results which confirm Apple’s growing presence in this sector:

• 67% of US professionals use their iPad at work
• 93% of professionals use their iPad for work communication
• 79% of IT decision-makers always use the device on the road.

Next week’s Macworld conference in San Francisco will feature a host of workshops for enterprise users, offering nearly 40 sessions, exploring deployment of Apple products in the enterprise.

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