The “Consumerisation” of IT – are you prepared

The consumerisation of IT is a term that is gaining momentum in today’s business market.

So what is the “consumerisation of IT”?

It use to be that employees had the most advanced devices and technology from their work environment, however, with the exponential growth of mobile apps in the consumer space, this is no longer the case.

Today, those same consumers are buying the latest and most advanced smartphones and tablets for personal use, making their lives easier with access to information anywhere, anytime.

So, in simple terms, the broad array of powerful technology that is now delivered in  consumers hands (smartphones and tablets) has resulted in consumers (employees) demanding the same capabilities and access to information on the go, anywhere, anytime, from their work environment.

This transition has been dubbed “The consumerisation of IT””

Not that long ago the enterprise network ended at the firewall, now it ends at the users mobile device wherever they are, be it at home, in the car, at a clients sites or travelling globally.

The challenges that now arise for companies is how to deliver access to their core business systems to the multiple number of mobile operating systems and  how to secure that data.

Once upon a time, the only way to deliver this was via the Blackberry with it’s easy to use access to emails, contacts and calendars, that were delivered in a secure, controlled environment by a companies IT department.

In less than 4 years, that environment has changed. Devices and applications are now very user friendly and incredibly intuitive. On average a person will use 2-4 communication devices (choice of PC, laptop, smartphone, tablet) and multiple third party applications such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and other social media networking sites in the course of their day and use them interchangeable for personal and business use.

Because of this, consumers now expect access to work information should be just as intuitive and easy to use, however many companies did not expect nor were prepared for such a rapid change.

The consumerisation of IT has not happened as a result of users having a better understanding of technology, but of technology having a better understanding of its users.

To meet these demands, companies must look at innovative, cost effective and agile ways to build, integrate and deliver mobile apps into core business systems, whilst still being able to manage, support and maintain those devices securely.

It is also essential to deliver a solution that “partitions” the content and data on these devices between business and personal, so if a employee leaves, you only delete or remove the business content and corporate settings, whilst leaving their personal data and settings intact.

In my post in March 2011, I wrote about such a platform for building a mobile app once and being able to deploy it to multiple operating systems and devices simultaneously.

In my post in April 2011, I wrote about a platform approach to managing the security for disparate fleets of smartphones and tablets from a single web-based console.

In wasn’t that long ago that large businesses had an advantage to deliver business information to mobile users due to the huge costs associated with building and delivering apps.

The tables have turned, where small  and medium businesses have a huge tactical advantage of buying off the shelf mobile apps, that integrate with accounting packages such as MYOB for invoicing, taking sales, quoting and checking stock.

A friend of mine recently required an electrician to do some standard work to his home. He rang 3 companies to quote, a small local operator, a medium sized business and a large national business.
The local operator arrived with his iPad, took information down for the quote, sketched diagrams for the work needed including measurement and parts required and emailed the quote within 5 minutes of leaving my friends house.

The other 2 companies captured the information by paper and pen.

My friend chose the first local provider who had took the time to invest in a solution that delivered immediate benefits to my friend who is time poor and leads a very busy work life.

The work was completed before my friend received the official quotes by mail from the other 2 companies.

The moral of the story is mobility is growing in strength and can’t be ignored. Unless you start preparing a strategy for delivering access to your business systems to your customer facing employees whilst they are mobile, the customers you lose from the smaller more agile companies may take a very long time to win back – if at all.