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The Future of the Enterprise Help Desk,
Part 2 of an Interview with Joel Bomgar
SHAW: Let’s talk about one trend we’re seeing – the consumerization of IT. I would assume that this means end users are bringing consumer devices into the enterprise and then expecting IT to them. Is that the case, and is this going to get better or worse in the future?
BOMGAR: Absolutely, that’s happening. If you rewind five or 10 years, information technology was something that, one, the IT department gave you and, two, they told you exactly how to use it. You really didn’t see a whole lot of information technology that didn’t meet those two criteria.
Now, it is a completely new world out there. The extension of the network – again, mobility and connectivity – means people are saying, “I bought this BlackBerry Pearl or I bought this iPhone. I need to check my webmail on it. I need it to synchronize with Exchange.”
You have executives that go out and buy a MacBook Air. They walk in and say, “I bought this MacBook Air. I want to use it instead of my company sanctioned IBM ThinkPad.”
The IT department is like, “Oh no! How are we going to make all of these enterprise applications work on a Mac or on a MacBook Air with a cellular connection to the Internet? Or, how is this going to work with our network access control?”
So, suddenly you can go out and pick up some Star Trek, new device at Best Buy and it requires space-age support and people expect it work like a VCR. It doesn’t!
It’s requiring a whole new breed of remote support technologies that say, “Look, so what, you bought a MacBook Air. We’re going to try to make it work. We’re going to connect to your computer over the Internet. We’re going to try to get it working with our systems even though we didn’t give it to you, and we’ve never gotten a MacBook Air working with our enterprise applications.”
SHAW: So, is it your opinion that IT is losing this battle against end users that are bringing this stuff in, or are you just trying to say that we’ve got to acknowledge that this exists and we’re going to help you solve that problem instead of just putting up a brick wall?
BOMGAR: If they believe that the consumerization of IT can be contained, they will lose the battle. There’s no way around that.
You’re seeing this with iPhones and MacBook Airs and just Macs in general. You’ve got executives going out and buying them and saying, “This is what I want to use, and you can’t tell me otherwise, so make it work.”
I think the enterprise IT help desks that will thrive are the ones that understand it’s a zoo out there and rather than try to keep it from being a zoo, we have to adapt. We don’t have a choice.
We have to assume that the battlefield looks like this, and we have to adjust our weaponry and tactics to deal with that battlefield.
Those companies who say, “Hey, I just need a corporate policy that says you can’t use iPhones and Macs,” – there’s no way you can win that battle.
I think the companies that can adapt and understand the world has changed, and it’s going to require new tools and technologies to deal with it, they will thrive. The companies that believe it can be contained – it flat-out can’t. There’s just no way that that’s going to happen.
SHAW: So, we can’t just blame Apple for all this?
BOMGAR: (Laughs.)
You know Apple’s been responsible for an incredible amount of innovation. And, there’s no reason to exclude the benefit of that innovation from the enterprise. I mean, why not, if there’s a benefit to carrying around an iPhone and a Macbook Air, why not?!
The IT department is there to facilitate productivity, not to be the office department of “NO.”
On June 10, Keith Shaw, Programming Director for NetworkWorld, interviewed Joel Bomgar on the Future of the Enterprise Helpdesk. This is a transcript of Part 2 of the interview.
Joel Bomgar
