Last month, 65 companies introduced themselves and their products at DemoFall 2005 in Huntington Beach, Calif. These firms are remarkable for their innovation and their wild diversity. In fact, this diversity made it a challenge to identify the clear market trends these emerging companies represent. Then it occurred to me; diversity is exactly what is going on in the market.
Individuals who make independent choices about which products and services they use are driving today’s technology market. This individuality spurs a plethora of choice – one need only look at the wide range of mobile phone handsets and service plans to see the influence of individual choice on a competitive market place.
When I talked about the “always on” lifestyle at Demo two years ago, I discussed the effect of ubiquitous connectivity on us as people. Always on meant no separation of personal and professional life; we had established an anytime, anywhere connection to work and family.
At that time, the discussion focused on the personal benefits – and the stress – of constant connectivity. I didn’t foresee the repercussions for business. Now, though, as individuals assume more control of their information and communications environments – and as hundreds of companies spring up to give individuals more choice – the always-connected individual is influencing business IT infrastructure and applications.
In the name of productivity and business process, executives demanded mobile access to corporate data – and all trend lines indicated that the most efficient, agile and successful companies would create streamlined information architectures to support that access.
Then, business managers began affecting corporate application suites, not because they sat at a conference table and debated choices with IT, but because they took matters into their own hands. Service-based software meant line-of-business managers could make individual choices that would influence other departments and ultimately the entire company.
Funny, but it sounds a whole lot like the emergence of the PC industry 20 years ago. Perhaps we’re entering the computing era, defined by well-designed technology easily adopted and integrated into our daily lives. For individuals, it means freedom of choice – information and access that is tremendously empowering.
But what does that mean for business?
It means the stack is separating along business lines and responsibilities. Vertical control – from hardware to operating system to applications – is an illusion. IT professionals now must move from management to facilitation. They must create an environment with the controls and protections a business requires, yet with the flexibility to facilitate a range of individual choice.
It’s not an easy transformation by any measure, and it is reminiscent of the shift from managed central computing to personal networked computing that defined the 1980s business technology arena. No doubt, this new shift will take nearly a decade to complete, but make no mistake: It is happening.
Shipley is executive producer of The Demo Conferences, a biannual Network World-owned event that launches and showcases the newest emerging technology products and services. She can be reached at chris@demo.com.
