Cisco surveyed 600 IT and business leaders and found 95 percent of respondents said their organisations permitted employee-owned devices in the workplace. The survey also found that 84 percent of firms provided BYOD company IT support.

"IT managers are balancing security and support concerns with the very real potential to reap significant cost and productivity benefits from the BYOD trend", said Cisco.

Over three-quarters (76 percent) of respondents said BYOD was "somewhat or extremely positive for their companies". In addition, 40 percent of respondents cited "device choice" as employees' top BYOD priority, with the second BYOD priority being the desire to perform personal activities at work, and work activities during personal time.

Cisco estimates that the annual company cash benefits from BYOD range from $300 to $1,300 per employee, depending on the employee's job role.

Research from BT found that 82 percent of companies across 11 countries allow their employees to bring their own devices to work, or will do so within the next two years.