Employers fail to keep a handle on consumerisation

IDC says there is a gap between workers wanting to use their own devices, and employers' ability to support them

Employees are increasingly bringing their own devices to work, but IT departments are mostly unwilling or unable to support them, according to research from IDC.

The research, funded by IT services company Unisys, found that younger workers are driving the consumerisation change through "consensus usage" and they are simply using the devices rather than asking for permission.

The number of personal devices including smartphones and tablets used to access business applications grew by 10 per cent over the last year.

But according to Unisys, IT leaders have not increased the level of support for these devices during the same time period.

"The divide between IT workers' use of consumer technology and IT decision makers' readiness to support and capitalise on consumerisation is growing.

"We call this the Consumerisation Gap," it said in a blog.

IDC recommends that IT departments make the following changes to take full advantange of the benefits consumerisation can bring:

• They should manage and support these popular consumer technologies;
• Secure critical data and assets against hackers, viruses, identity thieves, and other widespread consumer IT threats;
• Offer the interactive "app" experiences that consumers are looking for when transacting with their suppliers;
• Handle the expected four-fold increase in transaction load that these new interactive experiences will impose on the IT infrastructure;
• Attract and retain the new generation of workers entering the workforce.

Just under 2,700 IT workers were questioned across nine countries, including the UK, for the survey.