The world, or at least America (US), is rapidly approaching a point where the majority of the population is technology savvy.  PCs went main stream in the early 1980’s with IBM’s introduction of the XT and PCjr.  This was followed by the introduction of the IBM AT in 1984 and Apple introduced the first Macintosh in that year as well.

So for the purpose of this discussion anyone born in or after 1983 has never known a world where computers didn’t exist.  That’s anyone who is age 28 or younger, since this article is being published April, 2011.  Realistically anyone under the age of 6 at that time probably doesn’t remember a world before computers.  This pushes the threshold up to age 34.

Based on a report from the US Census Bureau, International Data Base we see 52% of the world is 29 or under and 59% of the population is 34 or under. (Note: Data in the census is only broken into 5 year age groups and therefore age 25-29 is used for these calculations) US numbers are only slightly different with 41% being under 29 and 47% under 34. No matter how you slice it, the majority of the American population has had the ability to interact with computers since BIRTH.

Why is this important?

It proves an increasing majority of the population is technology savvy. But, more importantly it is imperative for Information Technology (IT) as an industry to realize the mystery of the technology is gone. Over the past 30 years CIOs, IT directors, manager, and staff have had to translate technology for their business counterparts.  Endless books have been written regarding aligning Information Technology and the business.  IT Management has done an incredible job of selling IT to the business through initiatives such as Process automation, Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), “Search” and a dearth of other new software solutions.  A wide variety of “New” industries have sprung up and become major business sectors based on technology.  One of the most famous examples is the search engine giant, Google.  In fact the company’s name has become a verb. I “googled” this or she “googled” that.

All of this sets the stage for “The Consumerization of IT” (COIT). There’s plenty of information available on the internet about this topic, which further supports the point… The majority of the population is technology savvy.  The final nail in the coffin here, which appears to make the point irrefutable, is the continued expansion of smartphones and tablets, such as the iPhone, iPad, Android, etc… These are being purchased by every day people, not technology geeks.  This is a public mind shift.

If you agree with the concept thus far, then you probably recognize everyone is now an information technologist.  Every company is in the information technology business in some way or another.  Think about a typical day– you start your day by driving to work – using your technology centric automobile (Ford, Honda, GM, etc), you check your email (Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google, etc.), you purchase breakfast using your credit card which immediately updates your accounts (J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Mint.com, etc.), you then check via your smartphone how much money you have available and we have just scratched the surface of the use of technology.

This mind shift and COIT dramatically changes the way traditional workers in the IT arena need to think about their functions.  Information Systems, Information Technology, Technology and Operations, Enterprise Technology, are all names of divisions within IT organizations.   The centralized IT organizations are and should be shrinking because there are so many solutions which can manipulate the data in a user-friendly method which does not require extensive IT knowledge.

Some will doubt this concept; but, this article challenges the traditional IT requirements.  Many will argue the pendulum of centralized versus distributed IT has been swinging back and forth for years.  However, the new ingredient which is changing the sauce is COIT.  Centralized IT is shrinking, but not going away.   The economies of scale which can be garnered by centralized IT are being vastly outweighed by the agility of distributed IT.  This is being further exacerbated by expansion of the technology savvy consumer.  IT is being absorbed into business process areas.  As mentioned earlier every business enterprise needs to manage information, in fact there is MORE information management required today.  The information is getting more specialized and the technology is getting more prevalent.  Hence every mind needs to know IT.

Why is  this important?  Doctors need to manage their patient information, mechanics track their engine information, manufacturers log information on their machines and products, retail stores (Wal-Mart, for example, has taken over the world using its price and data management?), and restaurants manage inventory and menu information.

The final answer is not 100% clear at current; the impact of technology aware minds across the employee population could take quite a few different directions.  However, as IT professionals, there are many who are doing a lot of thinking about how this changes the game. Some thoughts to consider:

1. Information Technology has moved from being about the technology to being about the information.  This is a great thing.  However, it introduces new challenges and opportunities.  The general populace is beginning to realize the extensive value of information.  See recent Facebook privacy concerns.  Think about the various federal and state information laws and regulations, HIPAA, PCI, and state information breach laws.
2. Shrinking IT departments with increasing overall IT spending.  The businesses units are deciding to manage that spend themselves instead of utilizing centralized IT to manage the spending.
3. Mobile computing is the new distributed computing.  Think about the displacing of the desktop pc – similar to how PCs displaced mainframes.
4. Information Security is the next frontier for the consumer.  Most people (See stats at beginning of article) know what HTTPS means.  Only a few short years ago IT or IS folks had to explain the use of the term.
5. The speed of change and technology continues to increase and the average consumer is now much more tech savvy; therefore, creating the need for new synergies. An iPhone4 consumer understands the value of managing his weight loss plan on his phone. He doesn’t consult with an IT person before installing the new software, and therefore education on the personal information the application sends to the author needs to occur.  IT needs to strengthen their relationship with the consumer and ensure applications take advantage of interactions with the user.