Gen-Y vs. corporate IT

Having experienced this first hand, I thought this article included a fairly accurate summary of the issues that are emerging through the clash between ultra-tech-savvy Gen-Yers and corporate IT departments.

On one hand you have a group of people who have known no boundary to their adoption of new technologies and on the other is a group tasked with the sustainable and efficient maintenance of an organisations' IT systems.

My view is that it's not only young professionals that will challenge draconian IT dept practices, but work forces in general. The reason being the discrepancy between employees' abilities to achieve outcomes in the consumer space can often out class what's possible in corporate IT environments. A few examples that come to my mind are Gmail's conversation view feature, which MS Outlook fails to match (even with search folders) and Microsoft's Live Mesh product where I see end users being able to work more effectively outside of their corporate IT domains.

I would say the resolution sits in the cautious loosening of controls on corporate IT and employees accepting the reasoning behind these. The later I expect will come with time, but might be expedited through increased communication between IT & the rest of the organisation.