What 'Consumerization of IT' Really Means For IT

snydeq writes "Nathan Clevenger examines the impact that the 'consumerization' of information technology will have on IT organizations, a trend fueled in large part by employee interest in the latest mobile devices, notably the iPhone and iPad. The growing practice of introducing new technologies into consumer markets before industrial markets stands to cause a sea change in the IT/user relationship, Clevenger writes, adding that this will likely involve 'painful changes in the status quo of corporate IT,' including the need to 'shed our arrogance' to give the underlying technology a chance to succeed. 'Although the debate around the impact of consumerization will no doubt continue for some time, the adoption of mobile technologies and enterprise applications is moving forward, whether or not IT departments are on board,' Clevenger writes, in large part because the trend provides companies with a strong opportunity to improve efficiency, productivity, and profit."

Comments

This article was written by Upper Management

[Revotron]

Know how I know that? It's four pages long, yet doesn't say anything.

"As perceptive CIOs seek to transform their rigid, legacy ridden infrastructures into agile, efficient, service-driven delivery mechanisms, they must adopt a pragmatic approach to managing the risks of consumer IT while embracing the benefits.

I stopped reading right there.

Re:What's wrong with IT?

[causality]

Firstly, note the unnecessary and repetitive use of derogatory terms for customers and general profanity. Hardly professional.

Right or wrong, I can tell you from where that originates.

Most people would never fault a paraplegic, who is in a wheelchair, for being unable to do jumping jacks. He would probably love to do them. He really cannot. It is "cannot", not "will not". Likewise, most people would not fault a diagnosed mentally retarded person for being unable to understand simple things. Chances are, no one has a harder time not hating that than he. There is no point and no profit in blaming either of those, and doing so would indicate extreme heartlessness and lack of understanding.

The problem is, there are large masses of people who have no disabilities of any kind. They are capable of abstract thought, of following simple instructions, of performing at least a minimal search for something and only asking for help if that doesn't find what they are looking for. They can do all of these things. Yet, a great many of them refuse to think. They don't want to use whatever thinking they can perform. By that I don't mean anything extreme or over-the-top or unreasonable. By that I mean an unnaturally high degree of helplessness, a freakishly strong desire for handholding even when this would take much more time than a two-minute Google search they are more than capable of performing.

Thinking is for "the help". That's grunt work for the computer janitors to do for them. It would not even occur to them to try. Thus, for most tech support lines, the one person who truly has a real problem that really does require the attention of a technician gets to wait on hold for 10-45 minutes because the lines are tied up by people who failed to read page 1 of the manual, the help file, the README file, the FAQ, the Web site, and the last e-mail they received.

This is the mentality with which you are dealing. You can gloss over it and cover it up with your grand notions of service, but you're patting yourself on the back to forget how much youre tempted to apply a cat-o-nine-tails to theirs. In a way, it truly is a trophy to be able to deal with that without getting a severe headache. After a while you can start to believe that you're just that eager to serve. I consider it a coping mechanism. The truth is, that mentality invites failure, asks for failure, begs for preventable problems, and tries very hard to defeat itself with problems of its own creation. It just so happens that they hired you to stand between themselves and any such consequences.

So you end up having to defend a network from both outside threats and the self-defeating, shortsighted actions of insiders who meant well. This isn't a fun position in which to find oneself. Oh, and if you lock it down too much, you will be swamped with complaints about functionality. It's like trying to simultaneously satisfy multiple contradictory conditions.

Most of those conditions wouldn't be contradictory if only users would attain the slightest clue pertaining to the tools they use every day. I am not talking about the knowledge of a skilled mechanic. I am talking about knowing how to drive. Lots of highway accidents didn't require an auto mechanic to prevent; they required a driver who understood how to drive. IT is like this. I do not refer to the skill needed to smelt iron ore, forge pig iron, and craft a hammer. I refer to the fact that a carpenter knows how to use his tools, even though they are not the goal of his job. So it is with workers who use computers but should not need to become experts. They only need to know basics. They refuse to learn them in a way that a driver could never refuse to learn to drive and expect to get away with.

Just as there's no point in being well-adjusted to a sick society, there's no point in seeing all of this and telling yourself that it is normal and should not change. The crux of the matter is whether you can know how fucked up it is and still deal with it patiently, educating those who will be educated and assisting the rest as much as you can. Making excuses for it and debasing yourself is just weak.