IT departments - does the future need us?
by John Patchett
June 17th, 2014
The Consumer-ization of technology
What do you think is driving the greatest technological revolution to rock the very foundation of corporate IT (Information Technology) departments? Take a moment; think about it, I’ll wait….. Alright, time’s up.
Did you guess some technology that Gartner or Forrester has been peddling from their hype curve or radar charts? Mobile? Cloud? Big Data? Self-serve BI? You cannot be faulted for guessing one of those or others, but these are symptoms, not the cause. You identified where corporate IT has been focusing its energies, not what is causing that energy expenditure.
Let me ask you another question – and really think about this. Think back five years ago, how many end-point computing devices did you have in your home? How many at your work place? I had two in my household, a laptop each for my wife and I. At work I had my desk computer. Now for the fun part, answer the same two questions, but frame your answer as of today, right now. Don’t forget to count your smart TV, eBook reader, gaming consoles, iPad, iPhone, Media devices, Smart Home devices (Nest thermostat) and wireless printer. In my house, the number of end-point computing devices now stands at 19. At work it’s still one…my desktop computer.
Wait, what!? I went from 2 to 19 at home, almost a 10 fold increase, but at work I remained at one measly device; my sad underpowered word-doc-wielding wimpy desktop? How can this be?
Welcome to ‘The consumer-ization of technology’ my friends and its changing everything.
Reference: http://blog.bosch-si.com/categories/internetofthings/2013/01/the-internet-of-things-new-infographics/
Shadow IT
Not every corporate IT problem is handled by corporate IT departments. Sometimes regular corporate citizens (non-IT people) work independently from corporate IT to use technology to create a whole new business capability. IT people have a slang term for this behaviour called ‘Shadow IT’. Simply, it is IT technology applied to a business problem, without involving the IT department. As you would expect, Shadow IT drives corporate IT people crazy. They cannot control security, applications, costs, help desk calls, etc., making it a dirty word and to be eliminated.
To the non-IT person, being able to solve problems with technology is liberation, and empowerment. It’s now, and it cheap. From their perspective corporate IT takes too long, costs too much and nobody can understand them. They are motivated to get the get the job done, low cost, low effort. Do you need to share a file? Use Dropbox. Just had a long working session with lots of content taken on the whiteboard? Take a picture and send it out to all participants. Need to see your calendar while on the go on your personal device? Sync your work and home schedules. These are simple demands for a consumer-driven world, and a significant challenge to corporate IT, which is not prepared for the consumer-ization of technology, and consumer expectations.
It’s a generation of tech savvy workers
Let’s face it, the current generation of workers is super tech savvy. They ‘get’ the consumeri-zation of technology. Everything is an easy-to-use-end-consumer device to them. They can set up a router, use social media, tweet, take a selfie, post, track and do…whatever needs to be done…today…now.
And they are running full tilt into corporate IT and IT process: No, you cannot have that app. You must use the corporately-provided phone. No, you cannot access that YouTube, it’s firewalled. No, you cannot use Dropbox. You must use the corporate, win-dose desktop. No, you cannot edit that document on the train from your iPad. No, your iPhone does not connect an instant messaging system.
The reason almost every corporate IT department is scrambling to deal with - mobile, cloud, social and collaboration - is that anybody can do it now on their own personal devices and freely available services. And these devices and services are proliferating exponentially in their personal world. Meanwhile back at the office…Well, let’s just say, corporate IT is not embracing consumer-ization, they are still trying to control it.
Call to Action: What can you do?
What can corporate IT departments do to prepare for accelerating consumer-ization of IT?
It’s not about control, it about integration – Change the approach to change. New devices, usage patterns and applications are accelerating. Control is a defensive game style, by employing an integration approach you are not bucking the consumer technology headwinds.
Follow consumer technology usage trends – Actively look for consumer services that have MAU (monthly active users) that are in the millions (or billions). These are services that are being used every day by millions of people, and they want to use these tools at work.
Expect more end-point computing devices – Scale your wireless network, now. Abandon wire. Re-tool your security and data loss prevention to accommodate more consumer devices. Your corporate end-computing devices (the desktops) are now vastly outnumbered.
Expect more consumer cloud services – Blocking and firewalling the corporate network from the outside world isolates you from where the next generation services are being provided. Cloud xenophobes beware. These are low cost, low administration services that your business partners are expecting (and demanding). After all, they have it at home, and in their hand.
Share your story: Are you wrestling with how to bring consumer devices and services into the everyday corporate world? Is you company struggling with embracing the explosion of end-point consumer devices? Share your stories, I’d like to hear from you.
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