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The Consumerization of IT is upon us, which means
non-technical business users—or citizen developers—are influencing, or even
developing, the technologies used to run businesses. In fact Gartner predicts
that “citizen developers” will develop 25 percent of all enterprise software by
2014.
It’s not surprising that end users are creating their own business
applications. For starters, it’s easier than ever. Building business software
used to require formal software coding experience. Today, a host of
build-it-yourself database or application platforms make it drag-and-drop easy.
But more importantly, business-user expectations are changing. In a world where
people can buy or download just about anything online “right now”, business
people expect and demand immediate solutions to their challenges. Waiting weeks
or months for IT to develop and deploy a solution simply doesn’t cut it any
longer. More and more, business people are simply bypassing IT to find their
own solutions.
And while most people would agree that empowering business
people to solve their own work challenges is a good thing, there are inherent
risks. This is especially true as business users attempt to solve more complex
technical problems themselves. In fact, according to Ian Finley, research vice
president at Gartner, citizen developers are already moving away
from building simple business applications and towards trying their hand at developing
complex departmental, enterprise or public applications.
To handle the flux in citizen developers and to limit data
security exposures, IT leaders should work with these citizen developers to
create the safest application development environment possible. With extra,
proactive support and governance on the front end, citizen developers can
contribute powerful business applications that give your company a competitive
advantage. Proactive support can also free up some of IT leader’s valuable
time, allowing them to offload department-level projects and focusing more on
the larger, enterprise-wide projects.
For example, many citizen developers and IT departments use the
TrackVia solution as their primary internal application platform. Instead of
using software or a range of Software-as-a-Service solutions, IT simply provides
their business users (and citizen developers) with a centralized, fast and easy
way to build their own department databases and applications. By centralizing
these applications in one place, it becomes easier for IT to maintain security
oversight and control while still providing guidance and directions to its
business users.
In today’s mission critical facilities and enterprise
businesses, fostering citizen developers can ensure you meet needs for
increased efficiency. By offloading department-level requests to technical
customer applications, you empower your end users to play a vital role within
your organization, all while growing your business. As a tool to support the
citizen developer, TrackVia empowers
thousands of consumers to bring their ideas, preferences and developed
applications into the workplace—making the workplace more efficient and secure.
Charles Var Bio:
After 15 years working in Silicon
Valley for the likes of Intuit, Symantec, and HP, Charles headed east in 2008
to lead marketing and communications for Denver-based MX Logic. Following MX
Logic’s acquisition by McAfee in 2009, Charles directed strategic marketing for
the McAfee Content and Cloud Security division, raising awareness and demand
for the company’s portfolio of Cloud-based email and web security
solutions. His experience in Internet- or Cloud-based business solutions
spans back to 2000 when he helped launch several of Intuit’s early online
solutions, including QuickBase and QuickBooks Online. Charles earned his
Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Journalism from Chapman
University. Charles currently leads all marketing initiatives for
TrackVia.
Follow TrackVia on Twitter: @TrackVia
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