Employees bypassing IT departments
The widespread adoption of consumer technologies in the workplace, such as outside instant messaging services, poses a potential threat to corporate information-technology departments, according to a new report.
The report, titled "Zen and the Art of Rogue Employee Management," is from the Yankee Group, a Boston-based market research group focused on global connectivity.
According to the report, nearly 50 percent of employees feel more empowered than IT to control their personal IT environment, a development that could lead to a potentially "hazardous mix of secured and unsecured applications in the enterprise."
YOUR VIEW: Talk about your IT departmentOnly about a third of companies offer instant-messaging, and when a company doesn't, many employees will resort to using consumer IM products from the likes of AOL or Yahoo to communicate sensitive company information to colleagues and customers; these consumer products lack the "robust security" measures that are a key feature of workplace IM offerings, noted Joshua Holbrook, manager of the Yankee Group Enterprise Research program.
To address this challenge, the Yankee Group suggests that corporate IT departments adopt a "Zen-like approach" that doesn't seek to dictate policy and enforce standards but rather looks to set guidelines and steer employees in the right direction.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
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