Partner Article

Consumerisation of IT: an opportunity for CIOs

Doug Miles, director of market intelligence at AIIM, unpicks the consumerisation of IT, and the opportunities he thinks it presents.

The consumerisation of IT has meant that personal/social devices are impacting the enterprise. Doug Miles, director of AIIM UK, advises CIOs to embrace the new IT practices such as BYOD, mobile IT and social media to gain competitive advantage.

For the past eight years or so, the IT department has faced a significant period of change. For the first time, users have dictated what devices they want to use in the workplace and the IT department (begrudgingly) has had to oblige.

Employees are no longer willing to give an enterprise ‘a pass’ for poor service or performance. Instead they want to be able to use technology that is just as easy and intuitive as their personal devices they use at home. This consumerisation of IT has caused a huge headache for the IT department, which behind the scenes is working away feverishly in order to protect corporate data, intellectual property, and ensure compliance.

Defining the consumerisation of IT

IT consumerisation is not new and according to analyst firm Gartner, it will be a significant trend over the next 10 years. Often misinterpreted, consumerisation should not be defined as workers wanting to use their iPhone for business purposes. Nor should it be interpreted as a catch phrase encompassing the disruptive impacts of the new technologies on corporate infrastructures, practices and mindsets. It should be acknowledged as a complete technology shift. Employee’s views and needs should be listened to and a formal business policy/solution implemented. Once a policy is in place, the benefits of break-through thinking, value-creating innovation and calculated risks will quickly follow. In today’s economy, these have never been more important.

Abolishing out-of-date IT policies

A major contributing factor in the growth of this trend is the increasing mobility of the workforce, which has blurred the boundaries between personal and business lives. Relying on technology that allows them to work or play anywhere at anytime is taken for granted. Users already have access to the digital riches of SoMoClo (social, mobile, cloud) in their personal lives, so why not at work?

Historically, the IT department would hold total control over the technologies available to the business. However, the CIO now has a larger part to play in the business process. The key role of the next-generation CIOs will be in understanding next-generation workers – where they work, when they work, how they work and what they need/want to do their work. A recent survey conducted by AIIM, the global community of information professionals discovered that organisations taking a softly-softly, wait-and-see approach to consumerisation will miss out on the productivity, efficiency and cost-saving benefits on offer.

According to AIIM, the consequences of organisations failing to pro-actively develop and aggressively implement modern IT innovations such as BYOD, mobile IT and social media could be significant and long-term. The report suggests that such caution and fear could set many organisations back in terms of competitiveness and, ultimately, have a knock-on effect on the UK economy.

The research concludes that the winners will be those who can capitalise on these strategies the quickest, and provides six salient tips for IT managers and CIOs:

1. Enterprise IT needs to change its mental mode – from one of ‘complete control’ to one of ‘leverage and enable’.

2. Understand evolving information users and usage – focus on how people get the work done, not just what devices they are using. Companies need to think hard about how to use technology to enable its organisation around work rather than organising work around technology.

3. Acknowledge information user needs – listen to your users; give them what they want. Typically they want better and faster access to information, in a way that is useful and in a format they are familiar with.

4. Anticipate future use and align with enterprise goals – technology is an enabler of business goals, although not a goal in itself. Identify your business goals and strategies and match the technology to achieve those goals. Best-in-class technology is great; technology that fits your business goals is even better.

5. Shape the technology you use – work with your suppliers to ensure products meet your information user needs. Switch from a device to a consumer focus.

6. Expand CIO roles and thinking – CIOs need to shift their mindset from a focus primarily on ‘produce results’ and ‘administer systems’ to also include focusing on ‘integration’ and entrepreneur’.

To conclude, with the consumerisation of IT, the sea change in expectations being placed on IT staff is real and irreversible. Organisations must seize the opportunity as soon as they can or risk falling behind their competitors in the race for success.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by AIIM .