Business Takes a Walk on the Consumer Side

Chances are pretty good that you are reading this on a mobile device of some kind and, odds are even better that you selected it and paid for it yourself. Welcome to the age of BYOD.

This “consumerization” of business IT is probably good news for users and, at least initially, bad news for companies. For users, it’s good because they have the devices they want – and the applications they need in order to succeed. For IT, it can be a nightmare, punching holes in traditional security walls and pushing aside traditional top-down controls. But don’t expect the trend to reverse; it’s here to stay. And it has a bright side, which boils down to empowering people to do their best and focus on what they love to do. If your organization banned the use of your own mobile phone or device, would you spend more time working or less?  Most likely less, a lot less.

Personalized devices and applications are key parts of a more individual-centric world, where instant gratification is not only desirable, but expected. This is a challenge to traditional models for application development and delivery. It means, we can look forward to a componentization of IT, where a huge number of new startups (and some established players) start to provide pieces of business applications for everything from expense reporting to inventory control.

Managing this will become a challenge for both users and IT organizations, which will make it almost mandatory to provide an organizational app store that can provide the functionality and maybe even the data that people need to do their work. There will also need to be a more sophisticated approach to security.

Fortunately, the tools exist to deliver on this vision; it’s only our mindset that needs adjustment!