Consumerization of Enterprise Software

Even mid-sized businesses can produce internal tooling only so quickly, and enterprises, on the other hand, are slow beasts by their very nature. In the past year, these issues came to the forefront. Remoting into antiquated internal systems just wasn’t cutting it for the new work from experience.

Consumerization of enterprise IT was the pervasive impact that consumer-originated technologies had on enterprises in 2021. It reflects how enterprises can take advantage of, and will be affected by, new models and technologies that come from the consumer space rather than built for the enterprise sector. When we say enterprise IT, think obscure functionality, interminable rollouts, bewildering interfaces, and high prices. On the other hand, consumerization of IT is associated with attractive interfaces, low prices, ease-of-use, and intuitive functionality.

Bring your own device, bring your own application, even bring your own technology movement in business is thanks to the consumer technology market. Managers schooled in the ways of corporate control and central IT are bound to find consumer tech disruption a little unsettling. Security concerns such as stolen mobile devices, breaches of proprietary data, hacked networks are very real. Many CIOs are under pressure to address Shadow IT and its issues and changes. However, there's an app for everything these days, and too many of them are great at solving business problems efficiently. Consumerization is here to stay and is already changing the way work gets done and how enterprise applications are designed.

Leverage good training technology

One drawback of being forced to switch to a remote work environment was that most companies didn’t get the time to distribute the necessary tools to employees. But setting up remote training today has never been easier. Various training technology tools can keep your global workforce up-to-speed and connected. Consider an LMS or the Learning Management System, an online training technology that lets your L&D team make eLearning courses for business procedures, onboarding, service and product training, etc. Everybody from the team can be on the same page with an LMS, and no matter where employees are located, the trainers can track the progress of employees. By training employees on how to use certain programs (e.g., Infosys, Salesforce, proprietary legacy systems, Wipro, etc.) that are new to the company, or programs that employees aren’t utilizing to their full potential, A DAS or Digital Adoption Solution can help corporations with smooth digital transformation. A DAS will let your L&D team build an in-app guide and a digital walkthrough showing users how to use the program while they are logged in to complete tasks. Digital Adoption Solutions are real-time, interactive, contextual, autonomous, and a necessary training tool to quickly adopt. A good DAS, stellar communication tools, and LMS will make training accessible to your employees. Go for tools that give easy access from mobile devices (Android and IOS), desktops, and tablets. Look for tools that give each employee a unique login to the cloud. Team members can complete training at their convenient time this way, using various devices and from different locations.

Real-Time Communication tool

SaaS tools are here to stay. They aren't just that hot trend for startups anymore. They have permeated the enterprise world too. Real-time communication has enabled a smooth transition to work to home. Being able to access the same set of tools remotely as in-person is important from here on out. To appeal to larger organizations, SaaS companies have begun to adopt enterprise security compliance. Besides, sprints are no longer just your average 9 to 5 restricted. The ability to reach somebody outside work hours if necessary via phone and desktop notification will prove useful.

Video conferencing that actually works.

Video conferencing is far from perfect still, but companies have been forced to adopt various tools, like Zoom and HighFive. Enterprises have even facilitated peer-to-peer communication through Google Hangouts and Skype. This lets remote conferencing become a more seamless part of your employee's everyday agile life.

Real-time document collaboration

Having to send documents back and forth via an internal file management system is a thing of the past. Using tools like Google Drive and Dropbox, you can now collaborate in real-time. Once these cloud systems are adopted company-wide, then it closes the gap between remote and in-office collaboration. This document collaboration manifests even in new issue tracking systems and SaaS project management. The complete agile workflow can now transition seamlessly between at-home and in-office work environments.

It's time to treat your employees like consumers, whereby the tools they use should be friendly, intuitive, and accessible from anywhere. The more enterprises consumerize, the more the line will blur between in-office and remote, for better or for worse.