CIOIN

BYOD and its other cousins have taken the corporate world by storm, coining the term ‘Consumerization of IT.’ But there is one person who isn’t too kicked about it: You. 

You fear losing control, you are apprehensive about security issues, and you aren’t too keen about giving your users too much power. 

On the other hand, your users have had enough. And you can’t really blame them. The IT department has been universally infamous for denying people what they want, so much so that it’s been dubbed as the department of ‘NO’. The result? Users surpassing the CIO and the IT department to get what they want.

And that’s the real meaning of losing control. Just like you couldn’t contain the social media epidemic in your enterprise, shouting slogans against BYOD is—or eventually will be—a lost cause. You know that, but you’ll still throw a fit. 

As consumer products enter the enterprise, IT goes through a process that oddly mimics the process which people go through when profound grief comes into their lives. The process for people is called the Kubler-Ross model. I call the process for IT the "Consumerization Grief Process."

Stage 1: Denial and Isolation

The first reaction IT has when users ask for, demand, or simply bring new consumer IT products into the organization is usually to deny that what the users want has any validity. This is a defense mechanism because IT already has enough to do! Who needs anything that's new, untested by IT, and costs both arms and both legs? Just ignore 'em, is usually IT's first response.

Stage 2: Anger

As pressure builds within the organization for adoption of whatever the product is, IT's ability to deny the product and the demand for it wears thin and anger creeps in. Those wretched users are upsetting the status quo!

Stage 3: Bargaining

IT attempts to bargain its way out of adopting the product. This is usually done by offering to upgrade something that is already in production, but as a ploy, it almost always fails because what IT is usually offering is "jam tomorrow". The trouble with this solution is that users know tomorrow will be way down the road. They also know that if tomorrow comes sooner rather than later, what they'll get will probably be a lot less than they wanted.

Stage 4: Depression

In this stage, IT finally starts to realize that the influx of consumer tech isn't stoppable. If IT has refused to buy whatever the demanded product is, either various departments will start buying it for their members out of their own budgets (this happened a lot with printers and Wi-Fi), or the users will just buy the product for themselves (as has happened with iPhones and iPads).

This is a stage of great frustration and gloom for IT because it is now obvious and inevitable that IT's wishes will be thwarted. The users will get their way and IT will have to accommodate the users whether IT likes it or not. Along with that, the status quo will be redefined and priorities and challenges will have to shift and realign. For IT this is a very depressing time.

Stage 5: Acceptance

The final stage of Consumerization Grief is marked by the withdrawal of IT from conflict with the organization. Calm will result. IT will no longer fight against the product or the users and the product will become part of the corporate IT world. Given a few months, IT will likely have completely embraced the product and the issue of having ever fought against it will no longer even be up for consideration. IT will probably act like it was all their idea in the first place.

So, if you're in IT and your users are pushing for the enterprise to adopt product X consider very carefully whether you have any chance whatsoever of blocking its adoption. The answer is increasingly becoming a great big "no."