IT Departments Help Workers with Personal Consumer Devices

Unisys Poll Shows Workers Turning to Corporate IT Departments for Help with Personal Consumer Devices Used at Work

Nearly half of respondents to a recent Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) online poll indicated they are more likely to ask their company IT department to fix problems with the personally owned consumer devices they use at work than they are to troubleshoot the issues themselves or seek support from the device manufacturer.

The 556 information workers (iWorkers) responding to the August 2011 poll were answering the question, “Who do you turn to for support when something goes wrong with your personal device that you use for work?”

Forty-seven percent of the respondents answered that they contact the company IT department for support, while 11 percent responded that they turn to the primary technology provider. Thirty-three percent of the respondents indicated that they troubleshoot the problem themselves first.

This finding corroborates recent results of the second annual Unisys consumerisation of IT research, conducted in May 2011 by International Data Corp (IDC).1 In that global survey 73 percent of Kiwi employers – well above the global average of nearly 60 percent – said that employees encountering a problem with a personal device used for business will contact the IT department for help as their first course of action rather than try to resolve the problem themselves or contact the technology provider.

“Consumerisation of IT could steamroll IT organisations if they can’t find creative ways to support iWorkers’ growing use of personally owned technology for business purposes,” said Larry Dunn, vice president, Global IT Outsourcing Solutions, Unisys. “It’s critical that IT leaders thoroughly reassess their processes for supporting and managing increasingly mobile end users and exploit new channels, such as self-service, to help employees quickly resolve problems with personal technology. By being proactive, CIOs can turn a potential challenge into a potentially huge productivity enhancer.”

1 IDC White Paper sponsored by Unisys, “Consumerisation of IT Study: Closing the ‘Consumerization Gap,’” July 2011. The complete results of the Unisys-sponsored IDC research, along with additional resources and commentary from Unisys and independent experts, are available on the Unisys “Consumer-Powered IT” blog.

About Unisys
Unisys is a worldwide information technology company. We provide a portfolio of IT services, software, and technology that solves critical problems for clients. We specialise in helping clients secure their operations, increase the efficiency and utilisation of their data centers, enhance support to their end users and constituents, and modernise their enterprise applications. To provide these services and solutions, we bring together offerings and capabilities in outsourcing services, systems integration and consulting services, infrastructure services, maintenance services, and high-end server technology. With approximately 23,000 employees, Unisys serves commercial organisations and government agencies throughout the world. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

About Unisys Asia Pacific
In Asia Pacific, Unisys delivers services and solutions through subsidiaries in Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan and through distributors or resellers in other countries in the region. Visit www.unisys.co.nz.

Follow us on www.twitter.com/UnisysAPAC.

ENDS

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