Driving Value from Consumerisation

This report was compiled by 34 senior IT professionals from 27 different organisations, including representatives from the retail, pharmaceutical, financial services, energy and manufacturing industries, along with representatives from public-sector organisations.
Topics discussed included:
•    What kind of applications can be delivered through consumerised IT?
•    Is there a role for ‘bring your own’ IT in an enterprise?
•    What are the benefits of consumerisation for the IT organisation?
•    How can consumerisation be delivered without introducing unacceptable risk?
•    How should users be supported by a consumerised IT organisation?

As technology progresses there is an ongoing desire from users to exploit the latest gadgets. Traditionally this has been stopped and controlled by IT but the tide is now slowly turning. The results from The Forum's Strategy Survey has highlighted that instead many are trying to ascertain the value that the business can get out of these new devices. What extra benefits can the corporate gain by taking advantage of these consumer products? Does it give the business an added agility or flexibility?

On the other hand this move away from centrally controlled and procured devices opens up avenues of risk for IT as well. Elements of data protection and ownership come into play alongside questions around policy and best practice. Supporting a myriad of devices will also become an issue if not managed and controlled from the outset. Allowances for employees for BYO schemes add to the impact before SLAs for support are considered.