IT Sourcing

I got an email recently from the analyst firm Gartner where they noted that the consumerisation of technology is one of the key trends now affecting managers responsible for IT outsourcing. I have been talking about this for some years, and my 2007 book ‘Global Services’ goes into the issue in some detail. But clearly it’s still news today.

I was a speaker at two technology conferences this week and I mentioned consumerisation at both, only to find some pushback from the more traditional elements of management. So it might be something we are talking of in books, the media, and online, but is it really affecting those on the frontline?

It might help if I define what I mean by consumerisation. In general, I mean the acceleration of consumer-focused technology, services, and behaviour into the enterprise IT environment. Gartner claims that: "Consumer behaviours will have the power to reshape how enterprise IT works; they will bring new and varied expectations for IT, which, at an enterprise IT level, must be recognised and developed. Growing consumer-buying power and the use of IT (and information access to the buyer) will force vertical sectors to adopt new technologies and create new products that better match consumer needs."

Enterprise IT bad, consumer IT good.

The question many enterprise IT leaders really need to ask is whether their old-school methods of managing IT services and outsourcing really meet the expectations of the business any longer?

This is a far-reaching question. It feels almost polemical to ask if all these enterprise IT leaders really know what they are doing, but it hinges on the fact that the leaders of many enterprise organizations are buying services from suppliers that are sub-standard compared to what consumers can get – often for free- on the Internet.

And the heads of the other departments in your business are all consumers of IT away from the enterprise. They all know what it’s possible to achieve using their computer at home, but then once they arrive in the office and start using the systems prescribed by the IT department, they feel as if one hand has been tied behind their back.

Think for a moment of some online tools you, and others in your company, might be using in your personal life. You might use a calendar for organizing events in a synchronized way, with connectivity to your address book so you can invite friends to events and see who is or is not attending. You don’t develop photos from film anymore, so you want a place to upload all those digital photos, and it’s even more useful if that tool connects to your address book so your friends and family can be informed of the new pictures. And how about a news feed so you can keep track of current affairs, the organizations that interest you, and your friends too? It’s all seamless and interconnected and just works without the need for support or training workshops.

Hold on, I just described Facebook.

But Facebook is still banned in a lot of the organizations I know because it is seen as a waste of time and has no place in the enterprise.

If this remains the prevailing attitude of most IT directors then the suppliers will just keep on offering solutions the IT director specifies. But the business team funds the IT department and many of those managers are seeing how powerful consumer technology has become. How long will it be before the line managers start questioning the suppliers getting chosen by the IT leader?

In my view, if that questioning has not already started then you are fortunate. You still have time to turn the tanker. If a pack of line managers is already after you then it might be time to start brushing up your resume on LinkedIn.