(thanks to Art King for the idea)

Lots of people talk about the consumerization of IT. Most often they mean consumer-based services that replace enterprise-provided solutions as the preferred method for employees to do their job. I use Yahoo IM for real-time communication, Google search for research, YouTube for posting company videos, and Twitter for blogging about new product developments. Why? Because there is no enterprise-provided service that can do those things better, faster, or more enjoyably, at least for me. No big surprise there – many of you probably do the same.

What does this mean for IT? Anxiety. Bad dreams. Lots of aspirin. As Chad Dyer, VP Technology at Sequoia Capital, says, “the challenge is to maintain security, compliance, and service level within this end-user-focused world.”

That’s a tough challenge. Playing bad cop doesn’t work – if anything it encourages end users to more actively seek out other options behind IT’s back. But the reality is that it is really hard for any IT team to keep up with the innovation, scalability and feature velocity of the consumer space.

So I don’t expect IT to solve all my problems. But I would actually like some help to figure out what services I can use. I’m looking for IT collaboration, not IT solutions. Because otherwise I’ll follow my own “guerilla collaboration” path with Apple, Plaxo, Xobni, or [insert solution-of-your-choice] and leave IT behind. And in the process probably create all kinds of painful issues for my CIO.

What does this have to do with mobile? Well, smartphones are the first time an entire platform has been “consumerized.” It’s an opportunity for service-oriented IT organizations to own this issue from the start, and collaborate with their end users to help them get what they want from mobility. Flexibility now will mean better services and a lot fewer surprises later.