IT for Consumers vs IT for Business
There are a lot to be said about the consumerization of IT. You may have heard about it from mainstream media and technology blogs. Or you may have colleagues who have mentioned it to you.
Traditionally, products started life in offices. Office workers first used calculators, computers and even mobile phones. Because of their functionalities, they were soon made available to individual consumers. The products became widely available and used, and the prices went down. With the consumerization of IT, the trend is reversed. IT products and services being introduced today are mostly geared towards individual consumers and then adapted for business use.
Today, consumers are getting fast, efficient and reliable services from such online giants as Amazon, Google, Facebook and other Web sites. The thing is, these online sites are giving them great experiences using their service. If Facebook has been buggy, it would not have attracted more than a billion subscribers. If Google did not churn out reliable and on the mark search results, then it would not be able to beat Yahoo and other search engines that people use. At the same time, if buying from Amazon is unsafe or complicated, then people would think twice about getting their merchandise and giving financial details to the online retailer.
People are using these products and are generally having good experiences. For Amazon, Google and Facebook, people are customers. Paying customers, or at least consumers that have great value to them economically. Now how does this affect your own enterprise?
IT for Your Employees
You need to understand that your employees are first and foremost people and consumers too. They have been experiencing great service at Amazon and other sites. They have come to expect that they will be getting the exact same experience at work.
Can you imagine how frustrating it would be for your employees to have to get a support ticket, wait in line, or be put on hold on the phone when some piece of technology breaks down at work?
As an IT professional or CIO, you would need to provide your employees with the tools to make the enterprise technology experience better for them. And it does not end with your employees either. Because IT is now important in every aspect of your business, it means that your suppliers, consumers, partners and other stakeholders would be impacted by the quality of your IT service.
Quality IT for All Stakeholders
In a world where consumerization of IT is a reality, a CIO would need to make sure that he or she is not only cutting costs, but also keeping the quality of service impeccable.
You can do this by getting into the Internet of Things. Everything in your business will soon be interconnected and will have its own IP address. What this means is that every asset in your company will be managed through IT.
If you are eager to know more about the consumerization of IT, its impact on your business, and more importantly what you could do about it, then you should talk to Four Cornerstone. We have a team of Oracle experts who could help you implement Internet of Things solutions from Oracle and help you position your company to take advantage of this trend.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Nouhailler.
