Digital Business – The Rise Of Shadow And Personal IT

Due to the evolving world of technology a major shift is happening where individuals are using whatever tools they can get their hands on to perform their jobs and get work done. Because of this infusion of citizen IT pros, we are witnessing a tremendous onslaught of Shadow and personal IT purchases by individuals in lines of business. Cloud and mobile have energized and enabled this Digital disruption and transformation, as people become their own IT shops. It is neither wrong nor right, but necessary for enterprise end users to do this.

Digital Business And The End Of IT

The chasm between IT and the business is well known. Enterprise users have to move at the speed of a connected world and workforce. Traditional IT has been unable to keep up or provide the necessary tools to support this new world of work. This has caused the emergence of Shadow IT, where IT related expenditures are being made by business leaders, thus bypassing the traditional IT department.

The analogy that an IT shop is the end all be all for technology procurement has come to an end. Although the end of traditional IT has been poetically heralded before, we believe the right pieces are in place to make this happen. One of the main antagonists to this trend is the traditional CIO or IT executive, who views IT as a separate environment aside from the business. When in all reality IT is supposed to support and be a part of the business.

The current reality is that businesses need to realize they are now in a Digital, globally connected world, where analog processes are being transformed into a different domain. These processes are now cloud and mobile enabled and able to be performed, whenever and wherever people need them to be. More and more processes are moving to a Digital domain. Also, legacy analog business processes that are still crucial need to be integrated with digital. This requires a whole new set of skills and operational models, which requires businesses to transform or be left behind.

Digital Business And Personal IT

What we are seeing is the end of an era of separate IT. That era represented IT as a distinct discipline outside of the business. Personal IT is now a disruptive wave impacting businesses, which is evidenced by BYOD and Bring Your Own Apps trends. While this is not yet absolute or full grown, it will surface itself in waves. However, from a trend perspective, this is what we see. We see the tide has turned in enterprises to allow for individuals to become their own citizen IT department.

The drivers are a better way to support customers and partners. Also, being able to react in real-time to exceptions in business processes is driving enterprise users to deploy their own personal IT environments. This is all about the interactions with customers and partners. But with that said, it needs to be managed ever more critically.

Aragon Research will be focusing on these disruptive trends in upcoming research to help organizations navigate their journey to and through digital business transformation. This transformation will require needed focus on business operational models and customer experience as pivotal to business success.