In the early days of IT, programmes and interfaces were designed to serve very specific functions, particularly in the business environment. The concept of user-friendliness lost out to getting the job done.

Apple helped change all that. Steve Jobs famously didn’t build things that consumers wanted – he built things consumers didn’t know they wanted. And now we have iPhones, iPads, attractive interfaces and intuitive functionality, which have fundamentally changed the way consumers – and employees – interact with the digital world.

When people start bringing these devices (and this mentality) into the workplace, the lines between private and corporate computing start to blur.

A variety of items, from devices such as phones, tablets and laptops to social media, cloud services and applications have all expanded the spectrum of technology that employees handle. This has led to what many are calling the Consumerisation of IT (CoIT). And it appears to be a trend that is here to stay according to Global Chief Information Officer at Synovate Aldo Mancini: “The Consumerisation of IT is something no CIO can ignore.”

Viewing CoIT as an extension of employee use of internal IT applications oversimplifies what the trend really represents. “People expect more choice in the technology they use for work. They want to use the same tools at work as they do at home,” stated a recent presentation by Microsoft. “People love their consumer technology because it makes it easier for them to connect with each other, access and share information and collaborate.”

There are a number of concerns that need to be addressed to ensure that CoIT works. IT has to develop a strategy that makes it possible to accept a myriad of devices and make it easy (not to mention possible) to integrate an app that is on a device into corporate IT systems. “To support ongoing partnerships and manage the plethora of devices that accompany them, we must have a convenient integration point that does not require custom engineering on our part or the partner's part,” writes Bernard Golden in his Computerworld blog.

Mancini agrees: “The traditional lockdown approach taken by IT departments no longer works as the business and employees expect greater accessibility. It’s my job to provide employees with the technology and tools to help them do their job more effectively while maintaining the highest level of security and support.”

However, security concerns and support are the two major challenges in CoIT. A recent Forbes article cited that IT must have end-to-end visibility and control over users, applications, servers and devices to ensure the business is protected, while at the same time, be able to respond quickly to changing business conditions.

Microsoft’s guide to CoIT warns that provisioning is important where consumer devices are concerned, as they may not have enterprise capabilities such as the ability to join a domain, which will limit their use within a corporate IT environment.

Flexibility and mobility have wrought huge changes in how and when IT is utilised. “Applications don't have downtime in this world, only varying levels of use around the clock,” says Golden.

Functionality is something that CoIT has brought to the forefront. Elegant, easy-to-use applications are the best way forward and companies need to research existing exemplars of these and tailor them to their own needs.

For companies to fully benefit from CoIT, they must establish a method for adopting such tools in the workplace, identify and mitigate controls, and educate employees to be aware of the policies that will be in place.

“It's all about recognising that the boundary between your company and the rest of the world is getting blurry – and that's a good thing,” says Golden. “Letting end users engage with your systems can transform your business relationships and your economics. Just be sure you're ready for the real consumerisation of IT.”