Company Owned, Business Only (COBO)

Corporate-Owned, Business Only (COBO) is a concept in which companies provide and manage their own devices for business purposes. Only the IT department controls and configures COBO devices. With this concept, private use of the devices is prohibited by a usage policy and is also technically prevented (as far as possible). Other approaches are BYOD, COPE and COSU.

COBO allows close control and high security
COBO devices are usually provided by IT departments and configured with pre-installed applications and security measures. This gives companies tighter control over their IT infrastructure to ensure security standards and compliance. Especially in industries with strict security requirements such as finance, healthcare, government agencies and critical infrastructure (CRITIS), COBO is frequently used.

Consider employee satisfaction with mobile devices
Companies can rely on COBO to ensure that all employees work on standardized platforms that can be centrally managed and maintained. This allows patches and updates to be distributed more efficiently, for example. At the same time, COBO may have a negative impact on employee flexibility and satisfaction. Due to the physical separation of professional and private data, employees always have to carry several devices with them – acceptance of this is often very low.