Last week the New York Times Bits blog published an article with some recent Forrester data we published entitled "IT Departments Lose Their Clout Over Phone Choices" here. The article got all the data facts right about people provisioning their own technology, but I was kinda surprised by some of the virulent comments people posted about the article. The first commenter claimed: "This is the beginning of the end of the corporate IT department."

Really? I'm not sure why people jump to this conclusion when they hear the word "IT consumerization," but I've seen it more than once before. I think it's really naive. People typically support this "death of IT" viewpoint with assertions like: 1.) technology is getting easier to use; 2.) people are getting smarter about how to use tech; and 3.) IT people just get in the way. The first and second points are accurate: technology *is* getting easier to use and provision, and generally speaking, our data indicates every generation is getting more tech savvy. That's a good thing we should all celebrate because it likely means lower costs for low value stuff that IT people must do today (e.g. resetting passwords, installing software, distributing software patches, fixing machines, etc.). But to assume this is the only role of IT people shows profound ignorance. And considering consumerization (read the influence of Google, Apple, etc.) has been with us for at least five years and the corporate IT job market has fared better than most occupations, there seems to be no basis in fact that IT is growing less necessary as consumerization rises.

Mobile, social, video, and cloud collaboration services are quickly becoming four technology legs of a stool supporting what I call the workplace experience. Enterprise investment in these technologies continues to outpace the overall IT market.

Yet taken alone, I'd argue these technologies offer little to no competitive advantage to firms.

Why? One reason: Thanks to the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft,IBM, Cisco, and a broad array of technology suppliers, virtually every company in the world can now access them. Consider the facts:

1. Cloud collaboration services: Evidence suggests small companies can put these technologies to use faster than their larger counterparts. Basic business collaboration services can now cost less than a daily cup of coffee to run for employees when provisioned via the cloud. What it means: Barriers to use are low.
2. Enterprise mobile technologies: Individual employees are able to put the latest mobile devices and apps to productive business use faster than their employers can. Our data suggests the most highly mobile (and highly paid) employee segments (33% of the information workforce) already embrace these tools to make themselves more productive from work, from home, and from the road. What it means: Companies have little control over who uses these.
3. Enterprise social tools: The current adoption barriers social technologies face in enterprises (by the numbers, it truly is dismal) appear to have more to do with cultural ambivalence and organizational complexity than they do with technology complexity. What it means: Many IT shops have overcome the tech complexity and are now scratching their heads on these other factors.

I’ve spent most of my career working with IT people making IT decisions on behalf of people who use technology for work. What I love about IT people is their utter devotion to the idea that technology can profoundly change how people work. To improve their productivity, to remove barriers to collaboration, to spark groundswell innovation, and more. Just the other day, I spoke to one named Fred who said to me: “We’re introducing new technologies to change the culture of our organization.”

What a courageous and inspirational idea coming from an IT leader. We’ll just assume he meant to add “…for the better.”

I hear stuff like this all the time, particularly when Content & Collaboration Professionals are planning major initiatives for social technologies, mobile technologies, and collaboration tools inside companies with market caps that dwarf the GDP of entire countries. Big ones. And of course I hear it in the tech trade mags I read, at conferences, and from human capital people fretting about baby boomers turning into octogenarians, and the nano-toting-angry-birds-playing, malcontent Millennials sporting ADD-like technology tendencies at work. I’ll work for a Millennial one day. I’m not critiquing. Just observing.

So back to Fred. Assuming like me you work around folks from IT, I’ll ask: will Fred succeed?

Personally, I don’t gamble in casinos, but I do at work. I place bets on people I hire, budget dollars I spend, arguments I think I’ll win (but often lose), and even on the research ideas analysts on my team come to me with. After all, with luck, the right bets will put my three kids through school someday.

But I’m not betting on Fred.

A belated welcome to Forrester’s online community for Content & Collaboration professionals! Fresh off the success of our inaugural forum, our analysts are excited to work on a variety of new research and projects inspired by the needs and goals of the clients we serve: YOU.

The community is a place for Content & Collaboration professionals to exchange ideas, raise opinions and questions, and share real-world solutions with each other. Our analysts will be helping facilitate these discussions, sharing their own views, and using your insights and necessities to drive their research agendas.

The community is open to ALL Content & Collaboration professionals, whether you’re a Forrester client or have yet to become one. Do you want to know how peers plan to support new smartphones and tablets in the workplace? How about the latest in collaboration platforms and the vendors serving them? What about unleashing the value of content with the next wave of analytics and management solutions? You can post these and more questions, thoughts, and ideas to the community.

Here’s what else you’ll find:

• An easy to use platform where you can pose your questions and collaborate with peers.
• Insights from our analysts, who weigh in frequently on the issues.
• Fresh perspective from peers, who share their success stories and best practices.
• Content on the latest technologies and trends — from Forrester and other thought leaders. 

This week was a reconfirmation that information management professionals are facing a perfect storm. Two years ago, we wrote on a topic we call Technology Populism that looked at both the business opportunities and threats presented by ubiquitous information sharing tools inside and outside corporate networks. In a nutshell, we argued that information management professionals would face: employees demanding access to corporate systems using their consumer devices; cloud-based collaboration software services that offer hard-to-beat economics; and increased complexity in managing the trust, integrity, and risk associated with information on corporate networks. Since then all three have proven valid trends. Consider three IT pros I spoke with last week at a Novell customer panel. They represented a major university, a hospital, and a law enforcement agency.