For years corporate IT drove technological innovation - and had the huge budgets to prove it. Those days are largely over and now innovation is coming from the consumer market in the form of new devices, applications and means of access. Are IT departments ready for this change or are they in danger of staying behind their firewalls and becoming dinosaurs, unable to serve the needs of their employees?

 

According to four Booz & Co. authors, in an article ("Friendly Takeover: The Consumerization of Corporate IT") in the Booz publication Information Technology Foresight, "The dikes built by corporate IT departments to protect their companies from the outside world...and to restrict employees from the distractions of the Internet are springing ever-larger leaks." Employees, especially younger, Web savvy ones, are demanding the right to use new devices to do their jobs. Refusing to do so, the authors say, "is not a winning strategy," since it can lead to a loss of employee morale, loyalty and innovation.