Why Can’t Enterprise IT Be More Like Consumer IT?

In part one of a two part series, DLT Solutions Engineering Team Lead, Matt Micene explores why everyone assumes Enterprise IT sucks. In part two, he’ll offer hope for a brighter, more consumer-centric future.

Why does Enterprise IT Suck?

Much of the technology pundi-sphere has been burbling about the creation of shadow IT, cloud democratizing IT, the rise of bring-your-own-device (BYOD), and all sorts of anti-enterprise IT buzz to the point that I've even blogged about it before.

It struck me the other day that this is now the basic frame of mind of many people who use corporate IT resources in their daily business lives.  End users think their IT experience at work sucks!

They don't read Wired, they don't get our jokes, and they really think a ID10T problem exists.  But they know that IT could be doing better.  It used to be that IT broke down all the time which annoyed users, so we used cars as metaphors for building reliable software.  Irritation because the “CRM fell down again” isn't the water cooler IT gripe now.  Users want different tools that work in new ways and allow them to expand their reach.  But how did they come to this conclusion?

Consumer IT, including just about every device at your house, has finally reached a point where it influences our view of enterprise IT. Early consumer IT was a scaled down version of what was available at work: a few learning tools and games. Lots and lots of games!  But really, the home computing environment wasn't very rich and had very little crossover to anything that came close to business use.  Consumer IT has undergone a massive sea change at an extremely rapid rate over the last few years.

Take Instagram for example.  Even if you aren't an avid smartphone photographer, I'm confident you've heard of this app.  Why?  Because earlier this year their “billion dollar baby” buyout by Facebook was all over the press.  What you may not know about Instagram is that they were just under two years old when that acquisition happened.  In early 2010, Burbn, a one man shop, caught a round of funding for a web-based mobile check-in app, like Foursquare.  By October of 2010, they published a free app with the interface pared down to the simplest aspects – photos and sharing –and renamed it Instagram.  By the end of 2010, there were 1 million registered users.  Shortly thereafter, they announced integration with Foursquare, one of the location check-ins apps they were originally trying to replace.  They continued the network effect by making it easy to integrate with their application and creating ways for communities to develop around the content.  Two years later, Facebook likes the app and community so much, they offer up the “Big B” to get their hands on it.

The Web 2.0 experience with cross-site data mashups, the meteoric rise (and fall) of startups, and access anywhere, anytime is a new vision of IT.  Consumers see a wide range of new capabilities, tools, and toys popping up like mushrooms with multiple clones following closely on their heels.  As end users, they look at enterprise IT and ask, "Well this is all IT, so why can't you do this too, Mr. Enterprise IT?  Why can't I use my tablet-of-the-hour to do work?"

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

It's really not that people want their IT departments to build an Enterprise Pinterest, but they do question why it's easier for them to collaborate with a scattered group of friends and strangers than a co-located group of colleagues and partners.  Why can't the tools they have be fixed or made easier to use when issues are raised?  Why do they still need to install a client on our desktop when everything else is just a web page or an app? Consumer oriented IT "proves" that IT is "easy".

This, of course, is an unfair comparison.  All of these pop-up web tools are IT shops trying to capture consumer dollars.  Simple is fast. Simple is easy to use. And simple is easy to extend if it takes off.  Facebook is a great example of this, as is Twitter - Make a simple and visually appealing experience for users and watch the profit roll in (at least that's the hope).  Once the ball starts rolling, they then add the features that users are asking for and then watch to see if they really use those features. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Enterprise IT is in the business of running the business.  They are responsible for providing tools to get the job done.  In addition, rapid and constant change would disrupt the business, costing hard dollars.  IT usually do not build their own tools, so they are just another consumer in the world of software.  Some of the new enterprise tools do have the Web 2.0 experience and are accessible from anywhere and come with bright primary color schemes.  But the risk of trying the flavor-of-the-week CRM system is much higher than adding another photo retouch app to your phone.

Enter the Data Baggage

As consumers, we have stackable services that allow fairly unfettered access to our data, mainly photos, emails, and documents.  If we decide to use Hipstamatic we can save photos to Flickr, Facebook, or Instagram; we can also do the same with Pixlr-o-matic or Picplz or Camera+.  And we don't have to use any of them to upload, download, or view our snaps.  Should we lose a few (or all), we will be upset, but it isn't the end of the world.  We probably still have the original photos scattered on devices and phones and computers anyway.

In business, our data tends to be locked away in applications with only one way in or out.  Our CRM systems may integrate with our financial apps, but probably only after extensive and expensive work has been done on the backend. Data being the lifeblood of the company, should we lose a few bits, we could lose money and opportunities. Or even be held liable for regulatory reasons.

Photo courtesy of nexcesscdn.net