| Gartner analysts predict that the control of technology will shift from corporations to individuals, thereby consumerising business IT. This will create an entirely new consumer to business (C2B) as well as business to consumer (B2C) marketplace. | |
| According to Gartner, several major social trends including new working practices, expectations of instant response and greater personalisation are already having a significant impact on the technology markets, as consumers look to technology to improve choice and lifestyle flexibility. | |
| Providers of consumer of technologies have been quick to grab on these opportunities and this is vindicated by the increase in household broadband connections and proliferation of mobile devices. Gartner has found that for every one mobile device sold worldwide mainly for business, more than 20 are sold mainly for consumer use. | |
| "What was once a straightforward two way relationship between business and technology has suddenly become complicated by the arrival of a third party - the consumer," said Steve Prentice, vice president and chief of research at Gartner. | |
| "Now that the dynamics have changed, the enterprise will struggle to dictate how employees and customers use technology. Products will increasingly be designed for consumers and IT professionals will just have to work out how to use them within the organisation!" | |
| However, the study says that the enterprise IT has not kept up with he pace of change in consumer markets, and is steadily falling further behind. This is because they are bound by the chains of legacy system, flat budgets and risk-averse management. | |
| "Current corporate applications simply cannot compete with the consumer experience and consequent user expectations. The technology used at home is so sophisticated that it outstrips the vast majority of commercial offerings," said Prentice. | |
| "As home and office environments continue to merge, the knowledge worker of the future will demand the same level of functionality and flexibility in the workplace that they have got used to at home. When those demands are not met by the enterprise, history shows us that they will find the technologies and tools needed themselves in the consumer market." | |
| Technologies such as WiFi, 'smart' mobile phones, instant messaging, personal electronic devices, the Internet and even the PC itself, as well as consumer software like Google Desktop and Skype, have steadily infiltrated the enterprise, introduced by technophile employees from their experiences as consumers. These technologies have had an impact on every layer of the enterprise infrastructure, in some cases revolutionising the way businesses operate. | |
| "Ignoring the social context of technology is a recipe for business failure. If organisations continue to dictate what technologies their employees can and cannot use then they risk ignoring innovations that represent significant opportunities in the future, such as 3D graphics, rich media and consumer-oriented websites as platforms," said Prentice. | |
| Furthermore, consumer technologies will provide the opportunity to streamline overweight IT systems and build towards lower-cost, leaner, more agile IT infrastructures. | |
| "This is less of a revolution and more the coming together of a series of evolutionary changes societal, technological and in the marketplace at the right time," said Prentice. | |
| "Some parts of society, especially the knowledge workers, are open to change. Technology penetration levels and end-user expertise are high. The technology is reliable, inexpensive and effective, and has become good enough to engender significant change in the corporate marketplace." | |
| Prentice also acknowledged the huge role played by the Internet and particularly what many are calling 'Web 2.0' in the progression of the consumerisation of IT. | |
| "The widening use of new consumer technologies by employees within the enterprise is creating a second Internet revolution whereby the Internet will move into the very fabric of the business rather than continuing its current existence as a supporting technology," he said. | |
| "The first Internet revolution was largely focussed on the consumer and got people accustomed to using the Internet for relatively mundane and simple activities. Now commercial companies are embedding Internet applications into their IT and business make-up." | |
| The technological empowerment of end-users within the organisation represents significant challenges to the enterprise, with significant future likely ramifications wherein employees and customers will own and manage their own information and devices and will grant enterprises access, reversing the current situation where enterprises own and control the environment. | |
| Secondly, companies will deliver corporate applications into personal computing domains and will offer a portfolio of web-based services for individuals to configure their own applications. | |
| Thridly, consumers, already used to Internet-based interactions at home, will increasingly use the same tools to collaborate within the workplace, fuelling a new style of collective intelligence and innovation which ignores conventional organisational or physical boundaries. | |
| One of the major changes that Gartner is predicting is the streamlining of corporate IT systems through the introduction of consumer technologies. | |
| Analysts believe that just as company-owned cars ceased to be an integral element of the employee's package, so company-owned computing devices (and especially notebook computers) need no longer form part of the overall benefits package. | |
| "Although the technological challenges of accommodating what is essentially someone else's PC on the business system are significant, they are by no means insurmountable, particularly with the advances in PC virtualisation we anticipate in the next few years," said Brian Gammage, vice president at Gartner. | |
| "This way the end user gets to choose the device that suits his or her needs and the enterprise gets to free up the balance sheet and reduce their own costs and risks." | |
| As consumer technologies become further embedded in corporate systems, hardware need not be the only area where costs savings can be made. If all employees are using mobile phones there may no longer be a need to maintain a PBX address system for employees just as the need for corporate e-mail infrastructures may will become obsolete as consumer software is introduced into the enterprise. | |
| For organisations who can meet the challenge presented by the consumerisation of IT, Gartner believes that the innovative use of new, technology-enabled channels could lead to significant benefits. | |
| "Above and beyond the anticipated cost savings on hardware and software, companies who embrace consumerisation rather than trying to fight it will ultimately benefit from a more innovative, contented and productive workforce," said Prentice. | |
| According to Gartner, vendors that ultimately understand the consumer and enterprise markets are most likely to succeed. "Most vendors fall neatly into consumer or enterprise camps," commented Prentice. | |
| "Those with experience and understanding of both sectors will have the greatest opportunities as the IT industry shifts towards the consumer, with brand awareness and image becoming critical factors." | |
| "Vendors and end-user organisations alike need to recognise the reality of the consumerisation of IT and accommodate experimentation," said Prentice. | |
| "Our top-line advice to businesses is to accept this major phenomenon, learn to control it and ultimately adapt and benefit from it." | |
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