When I was 7 years old my parents bought me a bicycle for my birthday. After years of riding hand-me-downs, I was finally going to get a shiny new bike. On that
glorious day I opened a card that read, “Go look in the garage.”
I ran to the garage and threw open the door to see my new bike with a big bow on it. My reaction was typical for a 7-year-old: “That’s not the bike I wanted.”
I’m sure my dad was disappointed in my reaction, but without missing a beat he simply said, “No problem. I’ll take this bike back.”
As I waited for the second part of the statement, I heard what I wasn’t expecting: “When you have the money, you can go buy any bike you want.”
My dad said this as he wheeled my new bike off to the station wagon for a trip into oblivion. Wait! Can you guess how the story ends? Well, I may have been selfish, but I wasn’t stupid.
I tell you this story as a metaphor for what we see now in the business community. For what seems like centuries, IT departments far and wide have been providing assets to users. These “assets” were typically selected by the IT department as the standard fare for all employees and should meet the needs of the huddled masses. But what happens when somebody needs a different PC, phone, printer, etc.? IT stands their ground and the user loses. At least that’s what used to happen.
Nowadays, we see a growing trend in the market that has IT organizations terrified. People are bringing their own stuff to work – PCs, phones, printers. Dare we say: Macintosh laptops! Dogs and cats living together – mass hysteria!!! IT is none too pleased.
The bottom line, as pointed out in a new, and somewhat shocking, article posted on GigaOM about Forrester Research’s support of Mac use in the office, “Forrester to Your IT Department: Let Them Use Macs,” is that people are getting used to going rogue and are focused on results and not conformity. People want to be able to use the best resources to accomplish the goal and if that means I go to an Apple store and buy a Mac and bring it to work, that can only be seen as dedication to the end result (unless of course you’re in IT and then it is seen as an act of heresy). The point is, we may be seeing the end of dictatorial IT policies as this trend plays out.
Kids these days don’t have the same level of loyalty to the old guard as do previous generations. When they are told they can’t use a device and the given reason is that it is simply not supported by IT that just doesn’t cut the mustard. If it’s the best computer, phone, printer, gadget to do the job, it should be supported. After all, isn’t the goal to do as much as possible, as fast as possible? If that’s the goal, then why are we tying our hands behind our backs by using the IT “corporate standard” as the mantra?
This all seems academic until the CEO walks into the IT department with a brand new iPad and orders them to make it work. I guess “corporate standards” are made to be broken. Especially when the CEO has veto authority over your paycheck.
Tags: Brian Philbin, Business IT Relationship, Mobile Devices, Mobility - General
