Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to allow its employees to access corporate systems using their own devices, using mobile sandbox software from Good Technology to ensure that data is secure.

More than 60% of the Sainsbury’s 150,000 staff owns a smartphone, the company revealed today. It is in the processes of extending access to email and data from any smartphone platform.

"Managing information quickly and efficiently is at the heart of any successful retailer," said IT director Rob Fraser. "Sainsbury’s is committed to providing its colleagues with the mobile solutions they need to enable them to provide great service to its customers."

"Meeting the diverse needs of our customers is no longer going to happen just from a remote office – it’s going to increasingly happen using mobile devices," he said.

Good Technology’s sandbox application creates a secure environment on the device, which prevents company data from leaking onto the employee’s personal device. It also means devices can be managed remotely by the retailer’s IT department.

Analyst company Gartner recently described Good Technology as a "leader" in the enterprise wireless email market, praising its "strong security features" and support for all major platforms. It said the company’s wireless email business has grown by around 100% every year for the last three years.

However, it warned that Good’s software only works with its own email application, and does not integrate with the major cloud-based email providers.

"Customer feedback finds that employees often prefer to use the native email client on their iPads and iPhones, for both corporate and personal email, rather than using a separate email client for corporate email, as is Good Technology’s approach," Gartner added.