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At one time, personalization in the enterprise meant bringing a family photo from home to display on your desk. More recently, digitized photos, personal messages moved to screen savers and enterprise systems that greeted you by name when you logged on.

Today, personalization means so much more. It’s about creating an experience that is customized to the individual – based on their web habits, purchase patterns, and other data points collected with every move they make.

For some time now, consumers have enjoyed the benefits of online personalization that is nearly transparent; they see advertisements relevant to their user history, recommendations for movies, music, shoes, books and so much more based on previous selections, and the list goes on.

Consumers now expect their employers to offer personalization as well as managing the personalized enterprise experience. Corporate IT leaders have responded with a variety of “personalizing” strategies and programs. Some examples of these include:

• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs that allow employees to use their personal smartphones or tablets for work purposes
• Corporately owned, personally enabled (COPE) and other hybrid programs that let employees pick and purchase a preferred device that is fully supported by IT but enabled with both work and personal features
• Enterprise app stores that let employees download apps for both work and personal productivity from a large selection of solutions approved and supported by IT

More than a mere job perk, a personalized user experience can help employees be more effective and productive. It also gives them a greater sense of control over their working environment, which psychologists say creates a greater sense of satisfaction. However, it can pose significant challenges when it comes to securing the organization’s data.

As personalization brings more devices and apps into the enterprise, the more critical it will be to have in place effective managed mobility services that optimize workforce performance and secure content.