Employees paid to buy office/home laptops

By Rasha Madkour ASSOCIATED PRESS | Monday, September 29, 2008

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MIAMI — In a nod to how finicky people have become about the gadgets they use, software company Citrix Systems Inc. is rolling out a new program for its workers: BYOC - Bring your own computer.

Employees get a $2,100 stipend to buy a laptop and three-year service plan. In exchange for getting a computer with the specs they want - whether it's a widescreen, a lightweight or ultrafast processing - the workers essentially take on the company's technology purchasing and maintenance responsibilities. The 200 staffers who have signed up since the pilot program began this month say it's a deal they're happy to take.

Carolyn VanVurst, a Citrix information technology specialist, said she loved the idea of having a single laptop for both personal and business use, since she's on the computer so much.

"It was easier for me to have my life on one device instead of separated," she said.

It appears Citrix is the first large company to take such a leap, at least publicly. Steve Kleynhans, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said other technology companies have started similar pilot programs under the radar.

The idea presents technical challenges - such as making sure employees can access the programs they need for their jobs - as well as corporate policy questions, including how sensitive information is protected on the employees' computers.

"There's a lot of groundwork that needs to be done," Mr. Kleynhans said.

For Citrix, the program is a way of promoting its "virtualization" technology, which among other things lets companies run software programs they need - like SAP for time sheets and Microsoft Exchange for e-mail - in a central data center. Employees access the applications by logging in remotely, but the programs and potentially confidential information in them are never downloaded to the workers' own laptops.

Citrix's chief information officer, Paul Martine, said the company's leaders asked themselves: "Our technology does this - why aren't we doing this?"

"I'm either crazy," Mr. Martine added, "or this is going to be the trend of the future."

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