An entry in Web Worker Daily lead me to read an interesting article on The Economist, that was about employees using consumer web applications instead of or in addition to their in-house applications. There are definitely some convincing arguments for doing it, or even supporting it from the corporate side, as well as some valid concerns.

I think the trend the article is describing will become more and more important and organisations have to find new ways to adjust. Employees will find the tools that will best suit their needs and give them the best efficiency. It is then the organisations’ responsibility to make sure that everything stays secure and that the applications are not killing the IT support with too much work.

One way to do this could be publishing lists of corporate approved i.e. secure and functionally tested web applications that employees would be free to use in addition to all their in-house tools. This would give employees the freedom they want while also taking into account the concerns of the IT department. Employees would be free to suggest new tools to be added on the list while the IT support would take responsibility for testing and approving them.