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As long ago as 2005, Gartner identifed ‘consumerisation’ of IT as the most signifcant trend affecting the IT industry in the frst two decades of the twenty-frst century.

By this it meant that new technologies would be introduced to the consumer market frst and then fnd their way into the enterprise space. The process would start with employees bringing in and using their own choice of applications and devices, with or without offcial sanction, efore becoming formalised and adapted o suit the needs of business. Today, the frst stage of this process almost complete, with widespread enetration of consumer-oriented martphones, netbooks, tablet computers, ocial media, VoIP (e.g. Skype) and cloud-ased services in the enterprise space. A recent IDC study for Unisys 1 found hat 95% of offce workers were using t least one device/application they had urchased themselves for work purposes; nd that on average offce workers used our consumer devices and third party pplications daily.

There has been progress in the nterprise adoption of these technologies oo. Just look at how Twitter, Facebook nd YouTube have been incorporated nto corporate marketing strategies Unisys’s research found that use of social etworking tools by business is expected o grow from 10% to 30% in 2011); or he way in which enterprises are fnding pplications for tablet computers – a orm factor that was largely ignored until onsumer market acceptance gave it

A foot in both camps

This trend is of great interest to Samsung for obvious reasons. Not only is Samsung a leading consumer electronics company renowned for its notebook computers, netbooks, tablets and smartphones. It is also a leading provider of business equipment, including networking and communications systems.

Our analysis shows that the over-riding impetus for the consumerisation of IT comes from the need for better, faster collaboration and communications. Whether you are a new entrant to the workplace used to managing your personal life through Facebook or an offce worker in your mid-40s spending more and more time out of the offce, there is a growing need to be able to communicate with people when, where and how you want, ideally through a single device. Consumer technologies that let you integrate voice, video and text, access social media and run business and consumer-focused apps via a familiar, easy-to-use interface are better at delivering this sort of agility than rigid corporate systems introduced to address a specifc need. It is revealing that in a survey by Imago Techmedia prior to March’s Unifed Communications Expo 2011, eight out of 10 respondents felt that when it came to unifed communications, the business world was lagging behind the consumer market where integrated communications is commonplace.

Little wonder, then, that more and more employees are choosing to bring smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S nto the offce and that such devices are ow seen as the most important business roductivity tool by today’s knowledge workers (see news story on page 11).

he way forward

aced with an infux of consumer devices nd applications, some businesses will e tempted to clamp down on their se and insist that employees only use quipment supplied and authorised by he IT department. Such a policy is rarely uccessful and can be self-defeating if workers continue to use their favourite evices without their employer’s sanction r knowledge.

A better approach is to embrace the enefts that consumer devices can bring o a business and fnd ways to integrate

At home in the offce

WilfredWood, head of Sales Engineering at Samsung Electronics,

explains how businesses of all sizes can beneft from the consumerisation of IT.

Special Report:

Communications: Cover Story