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Consumerization Changes as IT and Business Users Collaborate

Joshua Hoffman
July 20, 2015

There was a point, relatively early in the consumerization of IT movement, when the popular stance among punditswas something along the lines of "We have to get users under control or our business may fall apart." The fear was that if non-IT users had more control of the technology, they would end up introducing new security risks that would lead to data breaches, regulatory problems and other issues that would severely damage a business. Ideas around consumerization are changing, and new perceptions about IT departments headline that shift.

Consumerization could fuel collaboration between business and IT users.

Consumerization could fuel collaboration between business and IT users.

Business users starting to get along with IT teams

The entire consumerization of IT movement centers around a sort of "us vs. them" attitude about how business units and IT teams interact. However, a recent CompTIA study found that approximately 52 percent of business managers consider themselves as having a good relationship with IT. This reflectsa huge change in how business users think about IT. A Computerworld report analyzing the study explained that there are many theories about why IT and business teams are starting to get along, and consumerization is actually one of them.

Gene Leganza, an analyst at Forrester, told the news source that people are increasingly noting that business units engagingwith technology from a consumer perspective, often referred to as rogue IT users, are moving away from being considered threats and are instead being used to fuel collaboration between business and IT to create new value opportunities.

"BPM solutions are evolving into application development platforms."

Using business process management to fuel IT-business integration

BPM tools are designed to align processes for optimal operations, often byhelping organizations overcome departmental barriers that get in the way of collaboration. These solutions are becoming especially important in light of IT consumerization. As business users begin to expect more collaboration with IT teams and a greater sense of control over how they use technology, they need almost immediate resolutions to their problems or organizations will run into risk of experiencing the bad side of consumerization.

BPM solutions are evolving into application development platforms in response to this demand. Integrating low-code development tools into process management systems lets business users quickly customize apps and services to meet specific requirements. Breaking down barriers between IT and business units can ensure that employees work together to get the right apps and services out to users as efficiently as possible, letting organizations embrace the consumerization movement and change how business and IT users perceive one another.