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With few companies having effectively tackled the implications of IT consumerization, the Accenture Institute for High Performance conducted a research on IT consumerization.
The study was aimed at understanding the breadth and depth of this phenomenon; its drivers, benefits and drawbacks; and the strategies companies are using to manage it.
The Accenture Institute for High Performance creates strategic insights into key management issues through original research and analysis. Its management researchers combine world-class reputations with Accenture’s extensive consulting, technology and outsourcing experience to conduct innovative research and analysis into how organizations become and remain high-performance businesses.
View Research Infographic [PDF, 863KB]
Androids, iPads, Google Docs, Dropbox - these and other technologies are everywhere in enterprises today. Often, they enter the workplace with employees, not under the company’s auspices.
They may raise alarms, but they also present valuable opportunities to those who successfully harness them. Few companies have effectively tackled the implications of IT consumerization.
Our study shows that consumerization of IT in the workplace follows a certain pathway. By understanding the four steps that make up this pathway, executives can evaluate where they stand on the road of IT consumerization.
IT consumerization management strategies include the extremes of anarchy and authority. Adoption, the middle-ground strategy, comprises tactics that companies can use to exploit the benefits of anarchy and authority and to manage the two strategies’ drawbacks. While we found three strategies and four adoption tactics in our study, companies may be using additional approaches beyond those we’ve identified.
Anarchy Management allows external devices and applications to enter the enterprise without restrictions.
Authority Management exercises tight control and restrict the number of devices and applications entering the enterprise.
Adoption Management works with end users to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks.
Broadening the scope Management gradually opens up the list of allowable consumer devices and applications.
Enticing choice Management provides employees with IT allowances as a job benefit.
Segmenting by role Management develops a consumerization profile for each role within the company.
Advocating uptake Management is proactively pushing cutting edge consumer technologies into the organization.
Many professionals replace their cell phones every two years-or even sooner. Only 18 months ago, there was no iPad, and early tablets found limited traction. Today, the iPad is everywhere. The tens of millions of these devices that have been sold pose a real threat to the PC marketplace and raise serious questions about enterprise IT.
Most executives acknowledge the growing use of smart phones and iPads at work. They’ve also noticed that employees are using social media to achieve business objectives. And they know that the use of shared spaces outside the corporate firewall (for example, through Google Docs, YouTube or Dropbox) is increasing. But many executives view these as insular occurrences that are not related to one another. Consequently, only few organizations have created a cohesive strategy for treating IT consumerization.
Jeanne G. Harris Blake Ives Iris Junglas
October 18, 2011