Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise
The IDG Enterprise Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise survey looks at how consumer technologies are affecting end-users’ expectations of IT and IT’s ability to meet those expectations. With more and more people bringing their own technology to the workplace, IT departments are challenged with supporting multiple platforms and devices. This switch in focus from IT-driven to employee-driven provides an opportunity for vendors to reinvent themselves to meet the expanding needs of their clients, both consumers and the companies they work for.
Key findings include:
- IDG Enterprise respondent organizations are reacting to the consumerization of IT trend and employees’ interest in using consumer devices to do their work by allowing employees to do work using their own devices either away from the office or at work (48%) and by expanding the list of devices they provide to their employees to include more consumer devices (42%).
- Overall, 84% of respondent IT departments currently support some type of employees’ personally owned devices with smartphones at the top (63%). Within the next 12-18 months we are seeing that two-thirds (66%) expect to support employees’ personally owned devices with tablets at the top (45%).
- In terms of specific devices, two-thirds of respondent IT departments (68%) currently support BlackBerry phones, whether these are company-provided or employee owned. Other well supported devices include the iPhone (61%) and the iPad (54%). Virtually all IT departments (93%) are currently supporting some type of consumer device whether company-provided or employee-owned.
- The consumerization of IT trend is expected to have the most positive impact on the following areas of respondent businesses over the next 12-18 months: user satisfaction (79% dramatic or moderate positive impact), user productivity (76%), process efficiency/collaboration (68%), access to critical business information (67%), business agility (67%) and workflow velocity (65%). However this trend is also creating negative impact on enterprise security (43% dramatic or moderate negative impact).
- Similarly, the top challenge in embracing the consumerization of IT trend is security (82%).
- It is not surprising with the negative impact that the consumerization of IT is expected to have on enterprise security at respondent businesses, that the ability to provide security for the devices is the top area of importance (85% critical or very important) when evaluating technology vendors.
IDG Enterprise’s 2011 Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise survey was conducted online among the audience of six IDG Enterprise brands – CIO, Computerworld, Network World, CSO, InfoWorld and ITworld, between September 12 -27, 2011. Results are based on 1,997 respondents.
For more information on this study, view the excerpt below.
For the complete survey results, please contact Bob Melk.