Comerization of IT at Workplace : To adopt or not to adopt?

Today’s ‘Generation Y’ comprising of technologically savvy, mobile, job hopping professionals is increasingly insisting on using their own devices at their workplaces to ensure uninterrupted access to company information and faster turnaround and productivity to meet the imperatives of today’s competitive workplaces.

But imagine a scenario when an employee uses three to four smart devices to juggle between various applications such as social networking sites, consumer applications for banking or travelling and business applications such as CRM, databases etc; using all these devices interchangeably for business and personal activities. This certainly implies
opening a Pandora’s box of issues associated with unauthorised access and subsequent data thefts!

This phenomenon that is redefining the functioning of workplaces is referred as ‘Consumerization of IT’ and is touted to be one of the most radical and irreversible transformations in Enterprise IT.

The key drivers of Consumerization of IT are increased employee productivity (58 percent) and greater flexibility and turnaround time (52 percent).

However the security risks pertaining to this trend have made many organizations
firmly oppose it by restricting the introduction of personal devices into the workplace and attempting to lock down data.

Very few companies realise that productivity benefits aside, the willingness to embrace
‘Consumerization of IT’ presents an opportunity for companies to save their capital
expenses by leveraging their employees’ pre-existing investments in such powerful devices.

So how can organisations leverage the productivity and cost benefits of this trend without being affected by its security challenges?