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Tech loyalty threatens productivity in the workplace

There is disconnect between the tech that workers want and what leadership is providing - and employees are not backing down.
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

Business professionals are seeking out new tools and technology to not just do their own jobs better, but to help their teams collaborate more effectively according to a new report.

Sunnyvale, CA-based unified collaboration services provider NextPlane surveyed 750 business professionals in a range of positions and industries in August 2018 for its latest report: The fight to collaborate: A growing rift between IT and teams.

The report shows that employees are not backing down from IT as they fight for their choice of technologies used in the workplace.

As consumers build loyalty toward specific technology brands, business professionals are introducing their own technology and products into the workplace without IT's approval, as demonstrated by the organic growth of workplace collaboration tools like Slack.

As IT attempts to remain in control, workers are not standing down, and 53 percent said they or another team have pushed back on IT or management when they tried to dictate the technology they use.

The report also shows that 73 percent of workers say they have been successful in implementing their choice of tech tools.

Almost two out of three (63 percent) expressed loyalty to the technology products they use for their job.

In many cases, teams manage to push back on IT to allow their group to use technology of their choice, with 46 percent saying IT made an exception for their team. And more than 1 in 10 people still use the technology of their choice in defiance of IT.

However, the IT organisation does still hold a considerable amount of control. Teams do comply with company mandates 42 percent of the time.

More than half (54 percent) said IT has the final say on all of the programs and technological devices used, and only 10 percent said they have full say in the technology they use.

According to the survey, almost half (46 percent) said they or their team have introduced new technology into their workplace, and 53 percent said they, or another team have pushed back on IT or management when they tried to dictate the technology they use.

Over one-third (38 percent) of respondents said they would be resistant to IT or management dictating which software or tools they use to do their jobs

Farzin Shahidi, CEO of NextPlane said: "Legions of teams and workers are introducing their preferred tools, such as team collaboration tools like Slack and Workplace, despite corporate IT policy".

While there are no one-size-fits-all options that would suit all types of technology that workers could use the workplace, federation is one possible solution that can allow companies to collaborate in an open way.

Multiple collaboration tools to be used within the same organization, federated across the workforce. IT would then be able to maintain security and control across the business

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