As one “IT guy” griped recently to ZDNet, BYOD is — so far — “a total failure in large orgs.” But not so at Dell and its 103,300 employees, where a company-wide BYOD policy is in full force. Adriana Karaboutis, Dell’s global CIO, has implemented a policy for smartphones that covers 10,000 employees, she told CIO Insight. The company is now looking to expand BYOD to laptops and tablets. Here are three takeaways from her implementation strategy:

1. Take the “Pulse” of the Company

“We asked: What are the things that we as the IT organization can do to drive efficiency, drive innovation, and drive value creation?” Karaboutis said. “We talked to our business partners, and said, ‘What is it that we can do to make people more efficient, more productive and have higher morale?’”

What she discovered: Employees wanted consumerization experiences, so the company had to focus on how it could provide that, all while keeping company data secure.

2. Classify Users

Different employees have different needs. “Inside sales people who are constantly on queues and calls have a much higher demand for network bandwidth and reliability versus the casual programmer who is working at home,” Karaboutis said. Once she classified her users, she established policies and procedures appropriate for each group.

3. Incubate and Test

Karaboutis created an incubation team to build and test mobile tools and apps. “You have to be really savvy about tools available that enable you to provide consumerization and mobility while still providing security,” she said. “Things such as mobile device management, the cloud for storing data, and integration tools like our Boomi [integration cloud solution], which allows us to protect SaaS in line with internal operations.” The incubation team is currently working on an internal cloud, mobile apps for travel and expense, and a mobile time-keeping system.

The result?

“Employees love having the choice to bring whichever smartphone device they like to work and we expect as strong a reaction when we rollout tablet and laptop options,” she said. 

More: The Key to BYOD? It’s the Data, of Course.

Image via VisualPhotos.com.