Enabling the “Consumerization of IT”
Steve Romero Posted on Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 9:09AM A persistent and inescapable phenomenon is beginning to have an impact on IT organizations everywhere. Whether IT likes it or not, users are bringing their “personal” technology to work. Workers have become increasingly dependent on “consumer technology” such as smartphones and social media and they are refusing to leave these devices at home. They have found countless ways to make themselves more productive and IT organizations now find themselves subject to what many are calling the “consumerization of IT.”
It started with a few savvy users who knew how to get around IT restrictions and controls on “non-standard technology.” IT organizations quickly found it was futile to forbid these devices and many have shifted to supporting rapid deployment of these new technologies (some would argue as a face-saving response). Many are viewing this as a transformation of IT as users take the reins and diminish IT’s ability to dictate what technology is deployed for business use. A good example is provided by a recent International Data Corporation article titled: “IT Consumers Transform the Enterprise: Are You Ready”, IDC May 2011. Here is an excerpt:
“We are currently at the tipping point where IDC expects mainstream organizations to aggressively embrace the adoption of consumerized technologies for the enterprise. IDC believes that this will be the next “transformative moment” for CIOs. Only a few years ago, when cloud computing and virtualization were the new trends, CIOs were judged based on how proactively they approached those solutions and drove value to the businesses. IDC believes that the current adoption trend of consumer technologies by the enterprise is liable to transform IT and business to an even greater extent, and in the next several years, CIOs will be judged based on how proactive their stance was and how successful they were in driving these technologies into the enterprise.”
Many pundits agree with IDC’s conclusions. They view the consumerization of IT has a driving force fostering not only higher user expectations of IT, but as a shift in who is actually driving new technology. Their expectations are not likely to be met very quickly as only 1 in 5 IT organizations have been proactive in embracing this change and leveraging it for new opportunities.
Though it seems as if many are regarding the consumerization of IT as a new phenomenon, I contend it is not new at all. In my new book, “Eliminating ‘Us and Them’ – Making IT and the Business One” http://www.amazon.com/Eliminating-Us-Them-Making-Business/dp/1430236442 I describe the forces that have been driving the need for IT to “transform” IT’s relationship with the business:
User Sophistication:
IT is far from the mystery it was during its humble beginnings. IT is no longer viewed as those techies doing magic things behind glass walls in air-conditioned rooms. It has been a long time since IT could say to their business counterparts, “You wouldn’t understand. It’s technical.” My 15-year old has more computer experience than my first CIO did. Technology is pervasive and ubiquitous. People use it from the moment they wake in the morning until they tuck themselves into bed. They use it in their sleep! They carry it in the pockets and their purses and they consume it with such ferocity that at times their appetites seem insatiable. Their understanding and appreciation of technology enables them to not only question IT, but to give them the confidence to go elsewhere for their IT services. Speaking of going elsewhere …
Outsourcing:
Countless IT services, activities and tasks have been farmed out to 3rd party providers over the past decade. Even the short-sighted knee-jerk “What on earth were we thinking?” outsourcing models have evolved into sound business decisions. As outsourcing continues to be a constant threat to internal IT groups, it will pale compared to …
Commoditization of IT Services:
First it was data center outsourcing. Next came on-demand application software as a service (SaaS). Now comes cloud computing, though many enterprises insist they won’t be moving to the cloud any time soon. Enterprise leaders who scoff at cloud computing or insist it will never run anything but their “craplications” should hold on to their hats. This cumulous won’t remain nebulous for long. The world will soon find out how inappropriate the name actually is. It should have been called Tornado Computing or Hurricane Computing because ill-prepared IT organizations will find themselves in a storm that will make Dorothy’s ride to Oz look like a breeze.
The Threats of Tomorrow:
Today brings numerous threats to the viability of the IT organization. Whether it is a year from now, five years from now, or ten years from now, there will be new threats. The hits will keep on coming.
I finished writing the book more than nine months ago, before I had contemplated this latest “threat” to IT. I would have been happy to include it as a driver for IT transformation because I will do anything to convince IT organizations that they need to change the relationship they have with their business users. As I state in my book, many of these users have long viewed IT as slow to respond, inflexible, inefficient and too costly. In the meantime, many IT organizations accuse their users of being overly demanding, unreasonable, impatient, uncooperative, and too frequently uninvolved. This is a ridiculous situation that should have never come to be and it needs to come to an end once and for all. The consumerization of IT is the latest trend to provide IT the opportunity to make itself “one” with the business and IT would be wise to do the following:
Look at users differently
IT needs to view everyone in the enterprise as possible sources of new ideas that could lead to IT and business innovation. IT needs to recognize the user sophistication I described earlier and do more “asking” and less “telling.”
Enable innovation
There are numerous barriers to innovation and IT needs to do everything possible to knock each of them down. I recently wrote this post describing how IT can enable innovation http://www.itgevangelist.com/blog/2011/10/9/enabling-innovation.html: One of the greatest barriers is pervasive enterprise risk and failure aversion and this post dives deeper into that barrier to innovation http://www.itgevangelist.com/blog/2011/10/9/embracing-and-learning-from-failure.html:
Collaborate with vendors
Few organizations have the wherewithal to keep pace with frequency and speed of technology change. The right vendor partnerships can help enterprises stay in front of advances in technology instead of getting run over by them.
IT organizations need to view the consumerization of IT as a fantastic opportunity to deliver untold value to their enterprises. Looking at user differently, enabling innovation and collaborating with vendors will help enterprises to take full advantage of this latest business trend.
~ Steve 10/09/2011 ~
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