Sam Gross, Unisys: iWorkers Willing Subsidize Cost of IT

August 16, 2010

Nearly three-quarters of the 141 information workers (iWorkers) responding to a recent online poll indicated that they would be willing to pay at least part of the cost for productivity-enhancing technology for work if they could choose it themselves.

The respondents were answering the question, “What percentage of the cost of your job’s IT tools would you be willing to fund if you had freedom to choose what you could use?”

Nearly one-third (32 percent) of the iWorkers said that they would be willing to pick up the full cost. Twenty-one percent said that they would pay up to half of the cost, and another 21 percent said that they would fund up to 30 percent of the cost.

This indication of a groundswell of iWorker interest in using self-purchased technology for work reinforces the findings from recent “Consumerization of IT” research sponsored by Unisys and conducted by International Data Corp. (IDC). The first part of the two-phase research – a study of 2,820 iWorkers in 10 countries – showed that enterprise employees are overwhelmingly willing to buy their own consumer technologies for use at work. In fact, 95 percent of respondents to that study reported that they use at least one self-purchased device for work.

About one-quarter (26 percent) of the respondents to the recent online poll said that they wouldn’t pay anything toward purchase of their own IT equipment. They said that they viewed such purchases as being the responsibility of their employers.

In the second phase of the Unisys-sponsored “Consumerization of IT” research – a survey of nearly 650 global IT decision-makers – 70 percent of the employer respondents indicated that they intended to continue taking on that responsibility through traditional models for purchasing employees’ devices and covering business-related charges.

“By clinging to old ways in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, employers could miss a golden opportunity to mobilize and unleash the innovation of an army of tech-savvy employees who want to use the technologies they rely on in their personal lives for work,” said Sam Gross, vice president, Global IT Outsourcing Solutions, Unisys.

“Both this recent online poll and the results of our ‘Consumerization of IT’ research indicate the waning of the days when enterprises could require employees to use only company-procured laptops and mobile phones,” Gross added. “In the face of increasing employee demand, IT organizations need to consider new models for end-user support that increase iWorkers’ satisfaction and productivity. By doing so, management can also create potential for significant cost savings by letting employees choose and pay for the productivity technology they’re most comfortable with rather than compel them to use company-provided tools.”