Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Apr. 22, 2010

Overall, if there is just one factor that is really impacting the mobile enterprise segment more than anything else right now it would have to be the consumerization of technology in the workplace.

David M. Smith, vice president and Gartner fellow at Gartner’s Wireless, Networking and Communications Summit this week says "things tend to happen in consumer markets first and then they impact businesses."

Smith delivered a nearly hour-long presentation on the big impact of consumerization on the mobile enterprise segment while offering advice for businesses already feeling the pressure.

Overall, the next generation of the workforce is already equipped with some very powerful wireless devices and features that they’ve grown accustomed to in their personal experience with technology and mobile communication.

However, many of the most popular online services available today are frowned upon in the enterprise environment. Oddly enough, consumer offerings are often less expensive or free, which in turn drives down costs overall, including enterprise sectors, albeit at a much slower pace.

Smith added “consumerization is not a strategy, and it’s not something you can adopt. Though this shift has led to what Gartner refers to as the IT Civil War, it can’t be stopped.”

“No matter the age, wireless consumers tend to be a generation ahead of enterprise and this is what’s forming the next generation of the workforce," he said.

"The new workplace demographics are skewing more toward those that expect to be able to work using whatever methods they’re already using on an hourly basis," said Smith.

Whereas IT too often feels the need to pull back due to legacy concerns, leaps in mobile technology and social media is causing employees to push even harder for IT to embrace the very same services they use on a regular basis outside the enterprise environment.

Gartner and Smith strongly discouraged IT staff from flat out abolishing all personal applications (one-size-fits-all strategies) simply don’t apply to everyone.

If policies support the business goals, they should be adopted, Smith added.

“You want to find the people that are the party crashers and you want to befriend them,” Smith said. The IT mindset should be that we don’t want you to have to go somewhere else to get what you want. You don’t want to be the police officer. You don’t want to be enforcing things all the time.”

This is particularly why segmentation is key so long as you’re still able to make the end user accountable. Businesses are encouraged to dictate a specific set of features or capabilities approved for use.

What's more, a segmentation plan is recommended where companies need to tighten control of specific users based on roles, responsibilities, access to data and other unique factors.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Source: Gartner.