Consumerization = Rate of Change in IT + Improvising Consumer

R “Ray” Wang is Principal Analyst and CEO at Constellation Research Group provided an excellent article called named “Coming to Terms with the Consumerization of IT” on the Harvard Business Review blog on the reality many companies need to face as their employees consumerize the services of IT….

The rate of change in technology is behind much of what is happening today — before technology started changing so rapidly, cultures and society had time to adapt and ‘catch up’ — now it is a matter of identifying what is a fad, as well as what is really on a trend. But in all cases, improvisation by the youth and young at heart will be leading the way.

There are some fundamental constants but they too are facing an accelerated pace that will require innovative ways. Business Process Management has only started to become valuable to companies especially after they started realizing they are seeing their talent leave with the undocumented knowledge they had provided.

Many companies make the mistake of thinking employees are dependent upon them – it is fast becoming the other way around. Companies are becoming very dependent upon skilled, very knowledgeable talent with the latest technology. Yet, most companies will not do anything to keep that talent. A quick look at the awards given by companies as well as the resumes sitting in a recruiting database reveals that most are only at a job between 2 and 7 years. As hard as it is to believe, there are employees that have been with the same company for 30, 40 years.

Consumerization of any product or service has always been the result of the failure of the current status quo to deliver as promised, or has failed to meet the needs of an employee or company to maintain or improve their service level. As a result, the employee starts to improvise. This is not unique just to IT.

Funding your own retirement has already gone through consumerization. Colleges and healthcare are facing the consumerization as well as the IT industry, never mind IT within a company.

All were and are the result of the less-than-satisfactory level of return or service expected or needed by the customer – whether that customer is someone planning for retirement, wanting an education, or need technology to accomplish their work.

The dominoes are falling in many places with this consumerization — marketing will be playing a big part in who rises to the top. And it need not be the best product as history has proven this several times – example: iPhone is the one of the worst cellular phones but this is not mentioned as the bells and whistles of the iPhone far outshine the inferior phone technology it holds.

As the new technologies arrive, the best means of improvising will be leading others to do the same… only much faster now.