Commercialization of IT Forces Changes at Corporate Level

IT organizations need to change as trends such as consumerization and the emergence of new strategies on improving the customer experience will play a major role in IT’s evolution in the coming years, according to a SysAid Technologies survey.
Only 3.6 percent of respondents said they think there will no longer be corporate IT departments, and nearly half of respondents (48 percent) expect IT departments to contain fewer people in five years’ time versus the 28.4 percent that expect growth in corporate IT team sizes.
Finally, 83.7 percent of respondents see a need for IT professionals to learn new skills versus the 12.6 percent who feel that IT professionals will only need their current skills.
On the question concerning consumerization, only 5.4 percent of respondents think that consumerization will not affect how corporate IT organizations operate (and an additional 2.4 percent don’t know what the consumerization of IT is).
“For many IT organizations BYOD and the consumerization of IT have been seen as an exercise in ensuring that the corporate IT infrastructure is still secure,” Sophie Danby, vice president of marketing at SysAid Technologies, told eWEEK. “With the added complication of being able to support employee-provided devices. In reality, however, BYOD and consumerization are merely the symptoms of a bigger challenge for IT–that IT supply has not kept pace with employee expectations of IT and IT services.”
Just 24.2 percent think that organizations will invest in consumer-like capabilities such as service catalogs/IT portals but will still be driven by the technology.
The remaining 67.9 percent think that corporate IT organizations need to fundamentally change, with 35 percent thinking that IT departments and projects will be driven by user/customer needs and expectations rather than the technology and 32.9 percent thinking that the corporate IT department will need to reinvent itself to match consumer services.
“While many corporate IT organizations have focused on mobile device management, security, device selection, corporate app stores, etc., I believe that many have missed the real challenge and opportunity of mobile–that is, successfully supporting employees and customers while they are on the move,” Danby said. “Therefore, many IT departments will need to revisit their mobile strategy and service delivery in light of consumer-driven expectations of service.”
Business relationships and service level management score highly at 42.9 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively.
The choice of incident and problem management by one in five respondents, plus those who called out service desk as an “Other” choice, potentially show siloed thinking and operations within IT organizations.
“Obviously there will be a continued need for IT employees to have the latest technology skills, but the growing use of cloud and other third-party services means that IT, or in fact lines of business, will need better service and contract management skills,” Danby said. “In that, as more IT services are delivered by third parties there will be a lesser need for technology management and a greater need for service management around the parameters of service quality and cost.”