Gartner

Cela semble une vérité de La Palice, mais travaillant souvent avec de grandes entreprises, je remarque qu’au contraire, les départements de TI et leurs gestionnaires « aiment contrôler » l’utile et même l’inutile. Combien de fois me suis-je retrouvée dans une salle de conférence pour discuter de Web, et de découvrir que le pare-feu de l’entreprise ne permettait pas au gestionnaire Web de visiter des sites Web de base! Pire encore, je me souviens d’une rencontre avec un ancien ministre du gouvernement du Québec et voulant lui montrer une vidéo qui résidait sur l’un des sites du réseau Québecor, il ne pouvait y accéder puisque son fournisseur internet n’était pas Videotron et que l’accès externe pour les sites de Québécor était réservé qu’au seul client du conglomérat. Parlons donc de ces nombreuses barrières internes et externes qui sous le couvert de l’efficacité TI (ou pire d’un marketing boiteux) ne prennent pas en considération les besoins et désirs de l’usager final. C’est ce que fait admirablement Gartner dans son document Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2008 and Beyond: Going Green and Self-Healing. Dans le point 8 Emerging trends and technologies, ont peut lire:

Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2010, end users' preferences will decide as much as half of all software, hardware and services acquisitions made by IT.

• The simplicity of technology solutions has provided users with the ability to make their own choices (in some cases) rather than relying on IT staff to choose technologies. Now, personal e-mail packages (such as GMail), instant messaging (AOL), laptop computers, mobile devices (such as iPhones), personal IP-based telephony (Skype), collaboration suites (ZOHO), and even personal networking and storage preferences are commonplace.

• The consumerization of IT is an ongoing process that further defines the reality that
users are making consumer-oriented decisions before IT-department-oriented decisions.

•It is no longer uncommon for end users to configure networks at home, to establish service for global connectivity, to purchase and maintain large storage capacity, or to make decisions about support of laptops and personal computers. The 2007 Predicts report indicated a movement toward companies encouraging employees to purchase their own laptops and the service contracts that go with them.

• Virtualization technologies now enable IT organizations to provision two images for corporate laptops and desktops. One image is the corporate standard, which is locked down from changes. The other is a user image set up to enable the user to modify it at will without affecting the corporate image.

• Users are bringing personal technology into the workplace and expecting to use it as part of their jobs. For example, redirection of corporate mail to personal e-mail clients and vice versa is a growing risk for IT organizations.

• IT organizations are providing guest networks to accommodate nonstandard PC connectivity to those visiting their companies.

• Risks of unmanaged technology decisions are becoming apparent as IT organizations struggle to shut down user-introduced technologies or to accommodate them in a secure and predictable fashion.
(…)
Recommendations:

• Establish a program of technology innovation that includes end-user-driven selection criteria. This will enable companies to expose the issue of end-user preferences as a corporate-driven initiative, which has the dual effect of embracing change while maintaining a coordinating role.

• Do not waste budget on a blanket attempt to regain control of decisions regarding technology use and introduction. This may work in the short run, but it will be unsuccessful long term as technology choices become more numerous and user familiarity with them becomes more commonplace.

Si on devait résumer ça, « Redonner le contrôle aux usagers », de toute façon, que vous le vouliez on non, c’est eux qui contrôle déjà et vous ne faites que nuire à leur productivité et à vos profits avec tous ces pare-feu réels, virtuels, logiciels, matériels ou administratifs. Ça complique la vie des gens bien inutilement…