Consumers Impact on IT Strategy

In reading Bill Gates' Memo "The Internet Tidal Wave" sent to Microsoft employees on May 26th, 1995 I was struck by the quote:

"Amazingly, it is easier to find information on the Web than it is to find information on the Microsoft Corporate Network. This inversion where a public network solves a problem better than a private network is quite stunning"

As early as '95 we see the impact that consumers have on IT strategy at the enterprise level. How individual users engage with technology has a profound effect in the ways in which companies' innovate. Internally, a staff that is accustomed to instant connectivity and infinite storage capabilities will come to expect that in the organization they work for. Externally, consumers changing the ways in which they communicate with one another, research and make purchases forces enterprise to evolve in the same manner.

Crucial to our discussion of IT Strategy are consumers. No longer can enterprise solely dictate the path in which innovation occurs. Consumers have considerable impact and control of the path in which IT Strategy will evolve.