Employees are solving customer problems with their own technology. CIOs should not only let them, but help them. According to a recent Forrester survey, 37 percent of information workers use personal or unsanctioned technology to do their jobs. They download software, post video online and pull out credit cards to use cloud services. It’s not just a few outliers; it’s mainstream, including many employees in customer-facing departments. This isn’t about personal entertainment. Employees rely on self-provisioned technologies for work-related tasks. Those surveyed say sites like LinkedIn, Google’s cloud services and devices like the iPhone offer better solutions than their IT group provides. And sometimes it’s their boss suggesting these outside solutions. There are two big reasons this is happening. First, customers access these technologies, making them powerful sources of information. LinkedIn, for example, might have better data about a sales contact than your CRM system. Second, your organization can’t be agile enough to respond to the escalating demands of an empowered customer. Your employees can be, but will you let them? You should. The wrong thing to do is put up barriers and become the department of “no Instead, find out what problems employees are trying to solve and provide corporate-sanctioned solutions. IT solutions will still lag the business needs, but it’s a step forward. Ideally, you empower your workforce to safely harness technology. That requires you to adopt new ways of working. It requires that you be a technology adviser to the business rather than just a service provider. It requires your team to build allegiances with business managers. Information risk won’t disappear, but you can work with the business to manage it. Build a risk-management group that includes legal, HR and business leaders. Teach employees how to protect themselves online. Help HR identify new employee policies. Give business managers the tools to assess the business risk of technology and leave it to them to make a decision. The payoff to this approach is big, and one every CIO should strive for: It can make IT a strategic business adviser and tap the innovation and problem-solving energy of your workforce. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by BMC The data deluge: The need for IT Operations observability and strategies for achieving it BMC Helix brings thousands of data points together to create a holistic view of the health of a service. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 4 mins IT Leadership how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business IT Skills Backup and Recovery Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe