Embrace change, urges SCC exec

Distributor SCC’s director of corporate business strategy, Ian Sherratt, is advising organisations embrace the use of multiple devices to access corporate applications by employees – despite the challenge it brings to the IT department.

He says while some in the industry will have reservations over moving away from a locked-down infrastructure in exchange for the limited pain involved in this process, there will be plenty to gain.

“Make no mistake: consumerisation represents the biggest challenge in the technology sector since the advent of the PC,” says Sherratt. “In order to cope, IT departments need to move from a position focused on providing the user with a compliant desktop, to one centred on delivering intuitive access to corporate applications over multiple devices.

“It demands a fundamental switch of emphasis and is going to power some significant cultural changes within work style, support and real estate. Organisations across the globe are going to have to be more flexible about signing up to changes in policy and working practice. Support responsibility and ownership when companies decide to adopt such strategies is vital.”

Sherratt cites research that shows that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies can deliver gains in productivity as well as significant reductions in support savings. “There will need to be a sea-change in the way many IT departments approach the governance of user access but the benefits of the consumerisation process are worth the wait. Estimates show that for the average employee switching to consumer devices can save up to five man hours per month in boot-up times alone, while the business advantages of enabling workers to attend to urgent tasks from their kitchen table are both straight forward and obvious,” he states.

“Whether we like it or not, IT departments are undergoing a significant period of cultural change. Organisations should embrace this change and they will see substantial gains. The strategic shifts they make as a result of the process will deliver profound benefits across the business that will see its people enabled to work faster, better and more cost-effectively.”