By Marguerite Reardon
October 27, 2010
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20020818-266.html?tag=topStories2
This article takes an inside look at Harrah’s Entertainment, however the ideas presented more than likely affect many other companies as well. In an effort to cut costs, Harrah decided to let employees use their personal cell phone for work use, instead of supplying them with a separate work only cell phone. At first employees were happy about the change so they only had to carry around one phone. Eventually, while this did indeed cut costs for Harrah, it also made a huge security issue among Harrah’s employees. Many wondered how much access the company would have to their personal life, and what would happen if the employee decided to leave the company, would the company clean everything off of their cell phone? Harrah decided to put together policies stating exactly what information the company could access on its employees cell phones, meaning that only corporate emails and business-related apps would be back on the company server, therefore if something happens to the phone or if the employee leaves the company, only the corporate data will be wiped. RIM and Good Technology supply the software to Harrah for this solution. Although this technology costs money, the company is still saving in the long run by not paying the cell phone bill.
While I understand the nuisance of having two cell phones, I would personally like to keep my work and private life separate. If my personal cell phone was also my work cell phone, I would always be “on call” and expected to respond to emails. What happened to normal 8 to 5 work days or when taking a vacation actually meant not working for a week? Unless the job required constant traveling, I would not want this. However, I think it is great there is now technology to ensure the company is not overstepping their bounds into people’s private lives by keeping the data separate.
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