Let’s say there are two basic categories of IT in the world – Enterprise IT (EIT) and Consumer IT (CIT). Let’s also say that the size of each of these categories is so large in relation to the rest of the possibilities that they fall into the boundary between EIT and CIT – inside the limit
If those two conditions are accepted, then how does it change the way we look at the IT industry as a whole, and in how we provide service to the customer?
Industry-wide, what you might expect is that someone will emerge as the leader of the market based on the best ability to transition theoretical knowledge into actual product. Right now, in my mind, the company to beat over the next 7-10 years for leadership in the market is Google. Not because they are the darlings, but because Google, or some company like Google, will lead the way in showing how to provide the best utility to both the consumer and the enterprise, and do it cheaper, better, and faster than the competition. The Google Desktop suite is platform and OS independent, offers incredible utility, and is essentially free to the user. Localized versions for internal enterprise networks can be competitively priced in the enterprise systems marketplace, and achieve the same premier status for knowledge management that Oracle has achieved for relational databases.
The EIT marketplace has to be about knowledge – know that, know how, know what, know who, and know where. This knowledge must be created and inculcated into the culture of the organization without intrusive ‘technologies’ or tool-centric ‘solutions’. They must be transparent, soft (not rigid), and elastic (not plastic). Nothing in the current offerings of any enterprise systems vendor today meets those criteria. Enterprise vendors have more to lose than to gain by encouraging their customers to move off of their current legacy systems, and they hold a substantial degree of sway over deep-pocketed customers who are generally conservative, change resistant, and slow (not fast). So someone has to be the first mover in a re-defined marketplace of knowledge management and information utility. It might be Google from the side of the technologists, but who will break ranks with the conservative global market leaders to join them to incite a revolution?
The CIT marketplace, on the other hand, has to be about service – do this, do what, do for, do now. This service must be tailored and personalized to the needs of the consumer without clunky interfaces, quirky geek-isms, or acronym laden, marketeer filtered, engineer-speak. They must be utilities, not technologies. They must be transparent as well, because nothing can insert itself into the relationship between consumer and utility. Our society (First-world, Global civilization) has created an incredible lack of time and the derivative personal stress that goes along with it. The consumer market is all about salving that wound. Real solutions – time saving, automated assistance, and personal services – and experiential escapes – relaxing, comforting, luxuriating, and rejuvenating. The iPod is a perfect escape item, while del.icio.us and infone might be early examples of the solution service, but I think they still fall short of market re-definition.