“No one ever got fired for buying IBM,” was the adage of enterprise IT decision-makers in the 1990s. Banking on the IT giant was the safest bet you could make, and if a new IT product came to market that was outside of IBM’s portfolio, administrators would simply wait for IBM to develop it…in IBM we trust. Then the “four horsemen” of IT emerged in the form of Microsoft, Intel, Dell and Cisco, which roamed from company to company, dominating everything IT.

Today, however, as has happened in so many areas of society and business, technology and IT have become democratized. Since the introduction of the Internet browser and then the rapid growth of social media, a new breed of tech-savvy worker has emerged. The end of the 9-5 workday has led to employees working around the clock and on the move. To make their lives easier, end users have blurred the distinction between work tools and personal tools, using personal smartphones and tablets on the job.

The Consumerization of IT

In the age of postconsumerization, individuals are making their own choices as to which business applications to use. A perfect example of this trend is the use of email in business. If email is not fully supported across devices by the internal IT department, then individuals will find ways to access work email on personal devices. The consumerization of IT (CoIT) revolution began when consumer brands such as Apple developed products that were easy to use, making purchasers’ business and personal lives more productive. True, Microsoft still dominates the overall enterprise IT pie and is often the primary option when it comes to email and desktop operating systems. However, Apple has nabbed a dominant share of the tablet market and is increasingly growing its share of the smartphone market. In short, there is no longer one principal technology vendor across the board.

End users today want tools that enhance their experience. If workers are not comfortable with the technology approved by IT, they can easily find many different options online for the devices already available to them. So the time has come for IT to make a decision. Do I fight the battle against personal products? Or do I embrace what people are already using and become their IT champion? Now, where consumerization has raised a number of IT security and compliance issues that are of great concern to IT, new tools that are both easy to use and “enterprise ready” are spreading like wildfire.

Beyond the CoIT Paradigm

At YouSendIt, we go beyond the CoIT paradigm: We develop our business-content collaboration tools with a laser focus on making the end-user experience easy, meeting the demands of where and how people work. Workers are collaborating all the time and they are often away from the office, so in response we developed a user-friendly interface that integrates seamlessly across mobile devices. However, we also give IT administrators the features they need to maintain security and compliance, thus satisfying both parties.

The CoIT trend has started and will continue to grow, giving IT managers a chance to be catalysts for change. The monopoly of enterprise products is dying and now there are a myriad of players in every facet of enterprise IT. A new kind of IT champion is emerging; one who does not force technology on end users, but who listens to them and selects solutions that meet the dual needs of the enterprise and end-user. Technology companies that develop products that allow IT to be the champion for their workforce will grow side by side with their customers.

Editor’s note: this is an initial guest post from Brian Curry.  See bio below:

Brian Curry, Chief Product Officer

Brian Curry is responsible for new market penetration, key partnership development, and product strategy at YouSendIt.

Brian brings 15 years of experience to the position and most recently was vice president of corporate partnerships at Yahoo!, where he oversaw the business unit that operates Tier 1 partnerships. While at Yahoo!, Curry managed partnerships with Comcast, EBay, Walmart, Turner Broadcasting and Adobe among others.

Prior to his tenure at Yahoo!, Brian was a vice president of AOL’s Premium and Subscription Services unit, where he was responsible for AOL businesses involving licensed access to the AOL network, integration of AOL services in third-party products, and development of subscription services.

He holds both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Design and Technology from the University of Illinois.