Rise of consumer IT

For years, you have been safe in the knowledge that business technology is – for want of a better term – the business. Finance directors, after all, remain prepared to back chief information officer (CIO) purchasing decisions.

According to analyst Gartner, technology spending accounts for between 10 and 15 per cent of overall enterprise expenditure.

You know all your acquired knowledge – years and years of conferences about 802.11b – will help your company spend its 15 per cent wisely. So, you might be sitting back with a certain degree of smug indifference if other employees – particularly young upstarts with iPods and blogs – are questioning the importance of business technology.

After all, what would such kids know? Do they not recognise the significance of local area networks? Well, they most probably do. As this month's cover feature highlights, today's young people grow up with the internet and technology as an intrinsic part of their lives: they instant message, text and chat online.

And such interactivity will create a generation of employees whose way of working is at odds with the traditional workplace, where just an accepted list of business technologies is used.

Feeling under pressure yet? You should be. Gartner says consumerisation – introducing new technologies into consumer markets before industrial markets – will be the most significant trend affecting IT in the next 10 years.

So, does that also mean IT departments should no longer be sending round diktats, telling staff what technology they can and cannot stick in to the assorted orifices of their PC?

Yes and no. First, forward-looking IT directors should be telling the business to capitalise on consumer technology to help breed competitiveness.

Moreover, a CIO can use consumer IT to cut the 15 per cent technology budget with effective use of free technologies, such as networking tool Skype.

But technology leaders must recognise that adopting consumer technology comes at a risk. Researcher Forrester says CIOs attempting to take on consumer IT should keep in mind that up to 90 per cent of computer crimes are inside jobs.

Allowing individuals to attach a USB stick and potentially download priceless company data comes with obvious dangers.

Your job is to manage the risks and benefits associated with consumer technology, setting up policies and processes. The time to act is now – before your competitors do.