CA Technologies Corporate Blog: Perspectives : iPad

Consumerization of IT Fatigue, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fun

Jackie Kahle — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:56:00 GMT

Despite my long background in IT, I have never been an early adopter of new technology. So it isn't surprising that I just finally got my first iPad this Christmas. My husband bought it for me in November and put it away, and in the month leading up to the grand unveiling I went onto my company's Service Desk and looked for information about how to connect my iPad to the various corporate systems. I wound up downloading 5 separate knowledgebase articles on how to connect it direct to the network (when I'm in the office), how to access our VPN, how to access the VPN via a new two-stage authentication process we adopted, how to set up an Exchange account and how to download and synch my work email.

Christmas morning I turned on the iPad and started accessing my personal email, my various social networks (including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn), tracking my portfolio with a cool Bloomberg app, taking really gorgeous Christmas photos, looking at the weather forecast and the constellations in the night sky, reading the New York Times and the New Yorker online, playing endless games of Angry Birds (I am actually getting pretty good at it), setting up a Dropbox account so I could share photos with my other home systems, watching stuff on Netflix and having really interesting conversations with Siri.

Every time I opened up my personal email account, I saw the five emails I sent to myself with the various Service Desk articles, mocking me. I reminded myself that I needed to get all the work stuff set up. Still I procrastinated, and played more versions of Angry Birds and Skyped my daughter in New York.

Here I am, more than a week later, and I finally leveled with myself: I don't want work-related stuff on my iPad. I don't want to read work e-mail, I don't want to access our intranet, and I don't want to use it to edit my documents and spreadsheets. I just want to have fun with it. Even though I love my job, work is work, and that is what my company laptop is for. It is bad enough that my Blackberry chirps all day long with incoming work email that I can't seem to avoid looking at even while on vacation. Why should I let work further intrude on my personal life? I like compartmentalizing them and keeping them as separate as I am able.

Yes, I know, this flies in the face of the promise of Consumer Driven IT and the seamless merging of one's personal and professional lives. Maybe it is because I am a baby boomer and not Gen-X or Gen-Y, or maybe we have just been sold a bill of goods by corporate America who is jumping at the chance to get their employees to work 24x7. But this is one consumer who plans to resist the siren call and draw a line in the sand so to speak (pardon the mixed metaphor).

Any one up for a game of Plants vs Zombies?

The end of the beginning of consumer driven IT

Adam Famularo — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:32:00 GMT

How the empowered user empowers the enterprise

We've all heard the consumer driven IT story before: Over the past few years, employees increasingly brought their personal computing devices to work. They started using them in place of, or in addition to, company-supplied PCs and smartphones. And they started using them for more than officially sanctioned email and VPN access. Unable to beat back the trend, even the most reticent of IT organizations are now trying to figure out how to best support personal devices.

That support is, more often than not, limited to basic connectivity and data access-and by that, I mean email. But the support requirements are growing exponentially, along with the number of non-sanctioned devices, new OSes, SaaS solutions, and cloud services people are using. All of that is pumping up the size of the user communities around them. What started as an employee movement has exploded to include customers, partners, and vendors.

A new study by Deloitte projects five percent of tablets sold in 2012-about 5 million devices-will be a user's second device. That finding supports earlier insights reported in last year's IDC study sponsored by CA Technologies on enterprise consumerization, which found users operating multiple devices to be on the rise, with 90 percent using PCs, 85 percent using smartphones, and 38 percent using tablets.

This growth in OSes, apps, and devices is in diametric opposition to how IT departments have traditionally operated: Standardize on one, maybe two hardware options (desktop, laptop); a single version of the Windows operating system; and a single mobile phone platform to tightly control deployments and device management, and to contain management costs. This "proven" management model will soon be, or is already, shattered.

As much as this appears to be a technology shift, it's not; at least, that's not the driving force behind the trend. It's more of a pent-up behavioral shift fundamentally cut loose by the ability to work when and where you please. Instead of getting things done in specific places in specific ways (i.e., at your desk or in your den, at a physically wired desktop PC), people can now do different things at different times of the day, using different types of technology that are most appropriate for the task at hand.

Indeed, a recent CA Technologies-sponsored survey found people who use mobile devices are able to reclaim 38 days per year that would otherwise be characterized as "down time." People are using their mobile devices to "fill up" their downtime, such as waiting for meetings to start, hanging out at airports between flights, going out with the family on weekends, or even "shopping while shopping" (i.e., surfing Amazon.com while walking the aisles at Target).

That's human nature driving technology, not the other way around-it's "consumer driven IT." The IT organization will not be successful trying to dictate how and where people can work, or the technology (hardware, software, and services) they use to get things done. In the most successful companies, IT is shifting from a top-down model that controls people to a bottom-up model that empowers people.

And IT is getting the message. Instead of resisting employee and customer demands for increased access across greater numbers of devices and platforms, corporate purchasing plans indicate 2012 could be the year when companies embrace alternative computing platforms, such as tablets, in droves. Apple says 90 percent of the Fortune 500 are now testing or deploying the iPad.

This aligns with what the CA Technologies-sponsored IDC study on consumerization found, with leading corporations reporting they were more likely to include mobile in their overall business strategy. Among companies in the vanguard of their industries, the IDC research shows:

47 percent have a mobile strategy
43 percent are using cloud computing to support mobile computing
41 percent are interacting with customers via mobile devices
41 percent are focusing on providing an end-to-end mobile experience *View entire cartoon here

As people and markets embrace a myriad of new devices, OSes, apps, and cloud services to access and interact with corporate applications and services, IT departments should empower their organizations by:

Creating corporate security and privacy policies around mobile use
Developing identity and access control procedures for mobile devices
Transforming existing business services to support mobile transactions
Transforming business applications, websites, content, and more to enable mobile web interfaces
Developing strategies to accommodate web traffic surges driven by expanded access (it's not just employees anymore, but now, customers, partners, etc.)

But, before any of that can happen, IT has to master the basics and develop a contemporary set of core competencies, including:

Understanding behaviors of mobile users across profiles (employees versus customers versus partners)
Incorporating universal mobile user experiences into application designs
Becoming a productivity enabler
Transforming IT into a service organization (i.e., it's time to go beyond "support")
Recognizing that saying "no" as a mechanism to keep control of IT platforms is no longer an option

Successful IT departments now building the next generation of mobile apps are working more closely than ever with their business counterparts (internal and external) and IT vendors. Such cross-company, cross-vendor collaboration is crucial to delivering creative, secure, and manageable apps that empower people. The results are tangible: more innovation, improved customer service, increased brand value, greater collaboration, higher productivity, and happier stakeholders.

While people, not technology, are now the driving force behind IT innovation, it's still crucial to ensure IT can achieve the levels of security and management it's accustomed to, without unduly limiting the freedom of people to get things done using whatever devices, OSes, or services as they see fit.

In fact, not a day goes by that we aren't asked by an IT leader for help or guidance supporting, managing, and securing mobile solutions over public networks, private networks, and cloud services. A year ago I couldn't say that, because many IT organizations were still in denial. And that, my friends, is the biggest behavioral shift.

Twitter adding value to air travel - another sign of consumer driven IT.

Robert Stroud — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:33:00 GMT

Are you seeing the value from Twitter? Does the use and growth of Facebook surprise you? Have you migrated to using an iPad or Smartphone for most of your interactions with business processes? More importantly are these emerging technologies now part, or becoming part of your business process?

I was listening to a colleague of mine speak at CA World, our company's flagship user conference, and he shared an example of Banking. Thirty years ago, the introduction of the ATM removed his need to visit bank branches, and the advent of internet banking allowed him to transact with the bank remotely. The bill payment feature allowed him to automatically schedule his payments, and the emergence of apps on his iPhone now ensures that he no longer has any direct interaction with the internet banking application. His apps now deliver a complete integrated picture of his financial health, or lack thereof, across his banking estate, all aggregated into one place.

This same colleague was sharing with me how the driver from his car service was leveraging Twitter to follow his flight progress as he returned from CA WORLD. Virgin America recently launched a service using Twitter where you can check (or have the messages delivered directly to you), with their new "tweet bot" service. Now the "tweet bot" @VAAInfo gives you immediate information on what is happening on that pesky delayed flight but doesn't appear to go far enough as to provide you a reason for the delay or cancelation, but is part of what I call the "Era of Now." Being a hyperactive individual who consumes too much caffeine (note to self: add "reduce caffeine intake" to the list of New Year's resolutions), if you want it all and want it now, I get you! But seriously, it is a symbol of the changing demographics of business. Those of us who are not physically part of the "Y" generation, get used to it!

Using Twitter for panel sessions for questions is becoming an increasingly popular method for handing questions at both physical and virtual events. The questions are available for all to see and I enjoy events that have responses to questions not answered during the session responded to following the event. I personally enjoy the opportunity of the real time "vibe" from the audience and also it provides a great record of the event for later use. For instance when I am at industry events I tweet the speakers key points which late provides me with a excellent document I can share with colleagues who cannot make the event.

Even on a personal level, a close friend of mine who travels extensively told me that he and his family communicate extensively on "Facetime" now that he and his family have iPads and wireless connectively is widely available. After hearing this, now that I have an iPad I recently transformed that technology to my business processes and conducted a meeting over Facetime; the result, no travel required. Money saved and hence bottom-lines for OPEX ever so slightly decreased. Imagine the scalability of lowering the bottom-line if extended beyond me to a staff of over 14,000.

In fact, when recently in Mexico City I delivered my keynote speech live and it was available globally in real-time on Facebook. I will also be presenting a keynote speech next year using similar capabilities direct from my PC so I will not be required to travel internationally for the event due to a schedule conflict (more on that closer to the event).

The reality here is that this is only the beginning; we have much more to come. Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for the ride!

Tackling Consumer Driven IT with Service Assurance

Denise Dubie — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:52:00 GMT

End users and customers want their technology and they want it now. How IT needs to adapt or die.

High-tech professionals today realize the technology once reserved for the specially trained is now accessible to all. They see it with the iPad owner on the morning subway commute or in the handheld devices of pre-teens on a school bus stop, and even use technology themselves more freely in the workplace and at home.

And it's a good thing that consumer technology is ubiquitous. Many benefit from what used to be kept gated and methodically doled out to those who were granted access. Now, for the most part, the most sophisticated technology is easy to attain and, in some cases, freely available to the public. Yet IT professionals tasked with the delivery of IT services to end users and customers - who now expect to access proprietary data via their smartphones, download applications with a click of a mouse and surf social networks on company networks -are facing the significant challenge of delivering optimized IT services at the speed, ease and cost that consumer technology has made standard. That is, unless the IT organization is adopting a service-oriented approach to IT service delivery, quality and management.

IT departments historically could control the manner in which their end users and customers consumed the technology IT provided, but the reality of today takes some of the power out of IT's hands. End users will be bringing that iPhone to work, expecting IT to let them use the smartphone to do their jobs better. And customers will want the web sites they frequent to have a tablet-compatible interface with which they can conduct their business online. IT organizations must accept this new reality and evolve to better serve internal and external customers. The only way to do that is to "adapt or die", as the common saying goes.

Two drivers will push IT organizations to adapt: first if they do not offer the business superior ease of use, access, and variety, the business will find alternatives in, say, cloud service providers. Secondly, if they can't make the technology as accessible as people perceive it needs to be, they will lose customers and in turn revenue for the business they support. For IT, the adaptation that needs to take place will not only provide end users and customers with reasonably easy access to applications and technology, but also enable IT to maintain visibility and control of the environment with the agility needed to respond to changing demand.

Transforming IT operations with service assurance technologies makes this opportunity possible. By monitoring and managing the myriad of components in a sophisticated IT environment from development and test out to production and the cloud, service assurance technologies help IT organizations bring applications to market faster, prevent performance problems from impacting end users, and enable the business to better meet and exceed customer expectations. The difference in service assurance versus traditional IT management approaches is that the focus is squarely on outcomes down to the transaction level - the end-user or customer experience with the IT service - rather than on the underlying elements that contribute to delivering the service. All the elements continue to be important, but the outcome is the key metric to be managed.

That means IT organizations must manage technology all for the sake of successful transactions that ensure optimized IT services are delivered to end-user desktops and customer devices. With the focus on the outcome, service assurance technologies will communicate meaningful information about transactions to IT professionals, reducing the noise of alerts from many systems down to what really matters to the end user and customer. It sounds simple, but obviously with IT environments featuring virtualization, cloud computing and mobile apps, the complexity grows exponentially. Service assurance helps to simplify the task at hand, equipping IT organizations with the information they need to amplify performance on priority applications and reduce manual effort around troubleshooting and problem resolution.

A new era of consumer driven IT is happening now a and presents IT with an opportunity to transform how they provide IT services both to employees and their customers. Today's savvy IT professionals are already well on their way to adopting a service-oriented approach to managing and delivering IT. And the demands on IT departments to evolve, adapt or become irrelevant won't end with consumer-driven technology, but IT organizations choosing service assurance now will be more agile and able to evolve quickly when the next trend hits.

Innovation for Impact

William Hughes — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:18:00 GMT

In the passing of Steve Jobs, the world has lost a technology visionary and revolutionary and a marketing genius. Nearly everyone agrees that Steve Jobs epitomized not just innovation, but an unbending dedication t o consistent innovation. Under his direction, Apple transformed personal computing from doing mostly technical work, to devices that helped define lifestyles. He was a master at understanding the user experience, delivering quality and enabling technology to become a part of our everyday lives.

Steve Jobs showed us all that to be a truly great technology company, the innovation engine has to permeate every corner of the corporate DNA. Everything must be associated and driven by innovation with a sustained focused on driving the user experience. And he showed us that in striving to achieve true innovation, one couldn’t be afraid to fail. While he succeeded with Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads, he also failed with Newtons, Lisas and a host of other products. It never slowed him down.

When he returned to Apple in 1997, the company launched a campaign that urged consumers to “Think Different.” It is clear that for Steve Jobs it wasn’t just a tagline, it was a way of life.