Consumerization

16. september 2008, by Erland Riis Lavsen

According to Gartner, consumerization is and will continue to dominate IT technology, especially when it comes to web technology.

"The growing practice of introducing new technologies into consumer markets prior to industrial markets will be the most significant trend affecting information technology (IT) during the next 10 years [...]. As a result, the majority of new technologies enterprises adopt for their information systems between 2007 and 2012 will have roots in consumer applications."

Consumerization is simultaneously one of the major strategies for Microsoft, and has also been that for a longer period of time for other companies, such as Google.

What does consumerization mean for your company?

The trend was born by the fact,  that ones colleagues or employees are impatient and demanding when it comes to web technologies. They expect to have the same facilities and services at work, as they do when being a private user on the Internet or online media. For example, if they send alot of text messages privately, it means that they find this way of communication both easy and effective, which leads to them having very little understanding to why their working place is not offering them the same service. Some may even have the tendency to use their private text messaging account workwise, to be able to facilitate what they see as a good method of work. What employees in this situation do not realize is, that many of these services, in an Enterprise context, are challenging to deal with and require a great deal of resources. At the same time these services put at least two core issues on the company´s agenda; governance and information rights management. All in all it can be difficult for the organisation to live up to the demands of their employees for modern web technology.

Developing the organisation

More than often the IT department is unprepared to handle the demands from the users. Mostly because the organisation does not have a strategy in the field and therefore has not implemented the required procedures, standards etc. to handle these technologies. It takes; developed Enterprise Information Architecture, alignment procedures, a well functioning governance model, well thought through information rights management model, cross-organisational project groups etc. for the organisation to be ready and react agile towards the users demands.

User driven innovation?

As we have witnessed the last ten years, it is Best Practise to adjust to the users needs and behaviour. But consumerization is not just about taking the user into consideration. Its about that the user adapting to technology very fast, and the providers of the consumer market technology having a sharp eye on user driven innovation. If the provider does not have their eye on the target, it can lead to a lack of success with the technology in question. In a business context, the core issue is to find a well balanced mix of the organisation´s resources, procedures etc, and the user driven demands.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

One of the strategies a company can use, is to oblige to consumerization, which means to meet the user needs in a fast and agile process, and to use Software as a Service, ie. SaaS. Saas is like an online recruiting service, which can be customised to a certain point, and then implemented in the company´s web solution. It is often relatively cheap and fast to integrate SaaS, but it also has it's downsides - the company does not have the full governance over the software in terms of example development, services or have the confidence that the company who delivers the software will still exist in a year or two.

Enterprise Solutions

Instead of using SaaS the company can implement its own solution on the Enterprise software platform. Either a standard software or a customised and developed software solution. It's a strategy which often takes time and a considerable amount of resources, especially in the project phase.

Alignment model

To reduce costs, secure the IT infrastructure and internal processes, and to be able to act agile and fast, many companies set up procedures for smaller IT projects and create an alignment model. With the use of alignment, the company has a structured way of implementing user needs created from the consumer market much faster, as well as with needs from the business.