Consumerization of IT…A different look

Everyone is talking about the consumerization of IT and how it is changing IT departments. While that is true, one area that I think is getting overlooked is how it is NOT changing how suppliers sell to the enterprise. This mainly comes into play in the hardware space. As I have mentioned before, SAAS providers are getting good at going around IT and procurement to get their solutions in the door. However, enterprise hardware providers still have only one path into the enterprise and that is through IT and procurement. What they are overlooking is when employees are bringing in their own hardware that they purchased from Amazon or Best Buy, they are missing out on that sale and the opportunity to help enterprises better manage this gear. If trends stay on the path that they are now, then employees will still go to Best Buy and Amazon and buy the latest iPad or Android tablet or MacBook or whatever. They will then bring that to work and IT will be forced to manage those devices. One the plus side for me as a procurement manager, I will have less work to do ☺.

There is another solution here in my opinion. That is for hardware providers to have consumer products and enterprise products accross ALL lines. This means having enterprise grade tablets and latops (really, is anyone going to be using desktops for much longer). Most enterprise hardware suppliers to have both consumer laptops and enterprise laptops (good job Lenovo, Dell and HP). The biggest culpret of not having an enterprise grade laptop is Apple. I know that people will say that Apple doesn’t have to have an enterprise grade laptop as their products are so good as they are and they are selling and I am not going to argue with that. What I will argue is that all the secrecy around new products from Apple drives IT and procurement professionals crazy! To Apple I say, keep all that stuff secret for consumers but come out with enterprise level MacBooks where you can give IT and procurement some road maps and be more open about things.

Now on to tablets. This is an area where no hardware vendor that I have seen is making tablet models for the enterprise and different models for consumers and my question is why not!? Tablets are today what laptops were 10–15 years ago in the enterprise. In my opinion tablets are looking to replace laptops much faster than laptops have replaced desktops, I mean have you seen the Surface Pro 3?

I think that people are going to say why should manufactures make different models for the enterprise and the consumer as it is more efficient to just market and sell to the consumer. As anyone that has been in IT or tech procurement for any length of time will tell you, is that when you have to buy more software to manage consumer devices, things get more complicated and more expensive. If manufactures want to make their help make life easier on IT and procurement they will look for ways to sell hardware that is enterprise friendly which, I think, will equate to happier customers and more sales!