To what extent should IT fight corporate users who deploy consumer-grade software to help them in their work? The message from a new Gartner report titled “Businesses Need to Explore Consumer Technology Before the Next Internet Revolution Leaves Them Behind” says exploit, don't delete.
According to a ZDNet article on the report, users are more often adding such popular consumer tools as Google Desktop, various instant-messaging applications, and Internet phone programs. IT efforts to block this use are doomed to fail, and the tools themselves can be quite effective and cheap. So IT had better assess each of these technologies to understand the potential benefits as well as risks to the organization.
The shift toward consumer technologies in the workplace may create other interesting trends, Gartner says, such as employers helping employees to purchase laptops and other technology they use at work. The model may date from the 1970s, when employers got rid of their fleets of company cars and instead paid employees a stipend to use their own vehicles for work.
The full Gartner report can be ordered online for $995. (No, that's not a typo.) To find the report, search the Gartner site for ID number G00136371.