Published on the 14/01/2015 | Written by Beverley Head

When Gartner last year forecast that by 2017 half of all enterprises would require employees to supply their own computing device it also raised the issue of how employees might be reimbursed at least for their use of communications networks. The issue again hit the headlines in late 2014 when a California Court ruled that employees required to use their own technology for work purposes should expect some reimbursement.

The challenge for enterprises has been working out how much they need to pay; clearly no company wants to be slugged for the costs of employees’ personal downloads.

In a recent paper about best practice BYOD policies, DLA Piper lawyer Alec Christie writes that most BYOD programmes already feature some form of reimbursement – either for the device, or more generally for service plan fees.

“We recommend setting a fixed amount for the organisation’s contribution and that you resist the temptation to pay/reimburse a percentage of the costs of the device and or service plan fees.”

Good Technology has however been working on systems which can offer the chance of a more granular analysis of the cost of communications and data needed to perform work on BYODs.

The company first announced a bill-splitting solution for the US market in July last year. The Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform essentially allowed split billing of communications services so that employees paid for personal app use and companies paid when the employee was using a corporate app.

The Good Work with Data solution, announced this month and touted as a world-first, now allows enterprise IT to separate business and personal cellular data usage on the same device and establish policies that pay directly for approved mobile app use, independent of carrier and without the need for employee stipend or reimbursement programmes.

It is currently being made available for pilot deployments on iOS and Android platforms.