Vic Govt mulls choose your own device policy

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blog When it comes to working in government departments and agencies, you know the drill when it comes to personal IT infrastructure. Public servants are typically issued with an ageing desktop PC bought about five years ago and running Windows XP (or sometimes, God forbid, Windows Vista), a BlackBerry for their mobile phone, and they’ll have to argue with their IT support team to get permission to install something as basic as Mozilla Firefox. We’ve all been there at one time or another. However, if an article published by Intermedium last week is to be believed, the Victorian Government is seeking to shake this paradigm up. The site reports (we recommend you click here for the full article):

“Victoria is contemplating a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) option as part of its replacement hardware State Purchasing Contract (SPC) which will allow employees to select their preferred device from the same list of devices available to agencies.”

To say that this move would be welcomed by the state’s public servants is an understatement. Corporate IT is continually moving towards becoming more flexible, more personalised, more lightweight, more “as a service” and less “capital expenditure”. Giving employees more freedom (as long as the appropriate security policies are put in place) is always a good thing, and especially in the area of IT, which is so closely linked to productivity. Let’s hope this policy goes ahead.

Image credit: Ante Vekic, royalty free

1 COMMENT

  1. BYOD (sort of) such modern thinking. Still leaving room for a preferred vendor!!! Lip service to the need and BYOD!!! A step, but is it the right one?

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