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Twenty per cent cost savings achieved through Bring-Your-Own programme
Only three years after launching its Bring- Your-Own (BYO) programme, Citrix has achieved its anticipated twenty per cent cost saving. This is a result of fewer desktop support requests and incident reports, as employees worldwide purchase and maintain their own work devices.
Following this success, the company is looking to tailor the programme for different countries to realise its three year vision of offering the BYO programme as a default benefit for all Citrix employees.
In support of this, according to a new survey, 53% of IT professionals in the UK have implemented desktop virtualisation solutions in order to support the diverse range of devices that employees are bringing into the workplace.
With 73% believing this will offer greater flexibility for the workforce, 78% believe desktop virtualisation, and subsequently BYO, will deliver reduced IT and / or business costs.
To ensure that the scheme continues to evolve and attract new employees, Citrix is currently reviewing the benefits it offers. It is also currently reviewing the stipend
securely access their desktop on any device. The financial dividends we have seen from the programme have demonstrated significant return on investment which is why we are working with our customers and partners to implement similar schemes within their organisations.
Whilst the total number of Citrix employees has increased by 2,000, we have made significant savings on IT.
As we continue to expand the scheme and put plans in place for the next few years, we hope to see these savings continue to grow as well as help our customers obtain similar results.”
provided for device purchases with a view to differentiate this further between geographic regions. This will allow all employees, regardless of location, to enjoy the same benefits from the scheme by accounting as far as possible for geographic differences like taxation.
Martin Kelly, vice president of information technology, Citrix said, “Implementing a BYO programme was a logical step for Citrix given our technology allows users to
The Citrix BYO programme was born as a solution to allow personal devices to be used in the workplace. It was initially available to employees who had been with the company for a minimum of 12 months and each participant was allocated a stipend to put towards a device of their choice.
Once purchased, employees are required to install and maintain anti-virus software as well as purchase a three year support agreement.
Critical IT still not aligned to business objectives
Companies are still not fully aligning IT strategies with business objectives, despite recognising the critical role IT has to play, according to new research from BT Engage IT, the IT services division of BT Business.
More than a third (35 per cent) of CIOs questioned by independent research agency Vanson Bourne believed that their board thought that IT was critical to the success of their businesses, but only three per cent said that their IT is fully aligned to their organisation’s business objectives. Surprisingly, seven per cent reported that IT and business objectives are completely separate.
Financial services companies topped the list, with more than half of CIOs (52 per cent) believing their IT strategies and business objectives are well or exactly aligned, with almost a third (32 per cent) seeing alignment
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on new implementations and projects. This correlates with how the CIOs believed their board feel about IT, with more than half (56 per cent) claiming it is viewed as critical to the success of the
business.Interestingly, four per cent of respondents from financial services companies didn’t know if their IT and business objectives were aligned or not.
Amongst retail, distribution and transport companies, over a quarter of CIOs (28 per cent) believed their board felt IT was critical to the success of the business, with the same number suggesting that it enabled them to deliver new services. Despite the critical nature of IT in these sectors, only a fifth (20 per cent) of CIOs said their IT and business objectives were aligned.
16 per cent of CIOs from manufacturing companies said that IT and business
objectives were completely separate – the highest percentage of any sector.
However, strangely manufacturing also had the highest number of companies that are completely aligned – more than twice the average at eight per cent.
John Thornhill, CEO, BT Engage IT, said: “The perception of IT in business is changing as rapidly as the technology itself, and is at the core of companies of all sizes and in all sectors. Its importance is highlighted in the results of our research, but also by CIOs and IT directors becoming board members, so it’s a shock to find that companies’ IT strategies aren’t fully aligned to business objectives in the majority of cases. That’s something that needs to be remedied or else businesses won’t be able to take full advantage of the latest technologies and risk being left behind.”
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