VA BYOD reimbursement strategy isn't IT's call, says Baker

Who pays for data plans under a forthcoming bring-your-own-device strategy at the Veterans Affairs Department? Don't ask Chief Information Officer Roger Baker--determining that isn't his job, he says.

"At that point you're stepping into something that's not the province of the assistant secretary for information and technology," said Baker during a Sept. 26 press call. "You're really getting into the business and the HR side of things--how they would decide to handle those things."

This week the VA will award its long-awaited mobile device management contract, Baker said. The agency plans to move forward with its BYOD strategy once the MDM solution is awarded and implemented.

"Once we have the MDM, we know exactly when it will be stood up and ready, I think we're ready to deal now with the bring your own device topic," said Baker.

Baker said he expects the MDM solution to provide a complete picture of mobility across the enterprise and be scalable up to 100,000 devices. But that doesn't mean VA will be doing any bulk purchasing of new mobile devices anytime soon. It's more likely VA business units will handle their own purchasing for government furnished equipment, possibly in 1,000-device increments, and their own decisions on BYOD, he added.

"The policy on whether or not BYOD is permissible is going to have to be centrally done," said Baker. "From there you let the businesses decide whether or not what they're planning on doing with the device is best done from a BYOD or a GFE standpoint,"

"We view the mobile device itself as a business device," said Baker. "Our major role as far as IT is concerned is specifying and enforcing the information security for the device and the apps that go on the device."

For more:
- listen to the press call

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