Consumerization of Information Technology: Nothing New Here
Anytime, Anywhere
There’s a lot of current discussion about the “consumerization of IT”, and most of those conversations make it sound like this is a new thing. Remember when Novell Netware lost out to Microsoft Lan Manager? How about when our beloved WordPerfect lost to Microsoft Word? It’s not always about which solution is technically superior – it’s about usability and user acceptance. Colorful screens, proportional fonts and mouse clicks won out over green screens, fixed-width characters, and alt+ctrl+shift+ keyboarding. When “Flight Simulator” was the application driving PC architecture and Windows presentation, how could we not believe that information technology was being “consumerized” back then? I’ll be the enterprise that had to upgrade all their PC’s from DOS to Windows recognized it right then.
Take a look at Intuit QuickBooks as another great example. When an accounting solution markets itself with the slogan “if you can write a check, you can do your own books”, we should acknowledge the pure “consumerization” of the solution, and the focus Intuit gave on making bookkeeping easier for the average Joe.
Since people are ultimately the consumers of information technology, doesn’t it make sense for the technology to work for human beings? Certainly, IT in business exists for the enterprise, not the individual. But software developers now readily recognize that if the solution isn’t intuitive and usable by the human being, then it won’t deliver the business benefits hoped for.
Mobility and the new breed of mobile devices are impacting this reality more than ever before. Where we could once draw a line between a phone and a computer, we can no longer differentiate. Smartphones, tablets, even music players and game sets are now simply Internet-connected devices, and users are demanding application and data access from them in the same way they demand access via portable computers.
The problem isn’t going to go away. As a matter of fact, it will likely become somewhat of a standard, if it hasn’t already. People want what they want, and the IT department will be forced to deliver. Rather than bucking the trend, it may make more sense to embrace it, and establish standards for the business on how and on what terms personal technology will play a part. And, if you can leverage equipment and carrier contracts your employees pay for, why not? It may actually improve productivity by allowing users to work how they want and with the tools they prefer.
Make sense?
J
