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The Declaration of Interdependence

The Declaration of Interdependence

The world has changed. You can’t deny employees the freedom to use consumer applications at work. Here’s how to live with and profit from them

Sidebar: What Is Shadow IT?

Shadow IT refers to technology that consumers can get on the Internet or at their neighbourhood electronics store. These tools, which include Web-based e-mail, instant messaging, iPods, USB storage and more, are the tools people use in their nonwork lives. And now they are starting to use them in the workplace.

Think of these applications and devices not just as a loose collection of tools that can be treated as one-offs, but as the product of a separate IT department staffed by individual users. The difference is simple: If all you have in your organization is a series of one-off user-driven projects, all you have to do is shut them down. But a shadow IT department is a force, and when it emerges, suddenly IT's monopoly on technology is over.

That's the point we've reached. From now on IT will have to compete with the shadow IT department for every user. If a user doesn't get the technology he thinks he needs to do his job from you — or gets a solution that doesn't work as well as she wants — the user can get an alternative from the shadow IT department.

— B Worthen

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