CIO — Modern IT departments typically employ one of three strategies to contain and control the proliferation of consumer technologies, or "shadow IT," within the enterprise, according to Yankee Group. First is the "Seek and Destroy" approach, in which IT altogether bans the use of consumer technologies; second comes the "Solicit and Support" tack, where IT accepts the technologies staffers introduce into the network and adjusts its infrastructure accordingly; and finally, some IT departments choose the "Acknowledge and Ignore" response to consumer technologies, letting staffers use whatever applications and services they please without tweaking infrastructure.

However, none of these strategies harnesses the true collaborative power of consumer technologies and can lead to chaos in the IT department, according to Yankee Group's July report, "Zen and the Art of Rogue Employee Management." The research firm suggests that IT embrace consumer technologies via a "Zen-like," internal customer care cooperative model where "consumer technologies work side by side with enterprise applications and devices."

"Consumerism will be a nightmare for IT departments, creating maintenance and support problems that will swiftly overwhelm IT resources unless they embrace new approaches to managing the rogue employees," the report reads.

Under an IT care co-op system, IT provides employees with the necessary tools to find a balance between end-user and IT-supported applications and devices, according to Yankee Group. Administrators don't set specific policy and enforce regulations; rather, they create general guidelines to follow and nudge users in the right direction.

What follows is Yankee Group's set of four best practices to help move your organization toward an effective IT care co-op system:

1) Facilitate an Online Social Networking Community Within the Enterprise
Wikis and blogs can help employees solve technical problems without reaching out to IT, because users can post messages detailing fixes to past issues with their hardware or services. Staffers can also pose questions on wikis or message boards, in which other staffers can help resolve issues. IT departments should do some digging into which consumer applications are currently being successfully used within enterprise walls and then build infrastructure for online communities around these widely used technologies. For instance, if AOL's AIM instant-messaging application is already in use, consider integrating that service into your new community infrastructure.

To encourage participation and high-quality posts, both a ratings and incentive system should be implemented. Such systems can also help separate helpful material from less useful content because users rate each post, according to Yankee Group. Points can be awarded to users who consistently post quality content, and a certain number of points can be traded in for goods or prizes like gift cards or American Express gift checks.

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