5 Principles of User-Centric IT

User-Centric IT serves the business by empowering people.

IT’s evolving role is to empower people to work better and smarter. Getting people to engage, connect and act in real-time adds incredible velocity to a business. IT leaders need to look for ways to optimize how individuals and departments work, while protecting the business interest in data security, compliance and governance.

User-Centric IT adapts to the way people work, not the other way around.

Instead of requiring people to adapt workflows to meet technology needs, or to delay projects by weeks while waiting for configuration or special-request reports, business technology should fit seamlessly into the workflow. It should be easy to use, flexible, and customizable to fit the style of each individual and department. This requires new IT systems to be extremely flexible at the edge, while maintaining consistency and security at the core.

People, information and knowledge must connect in real time.

Collaboration is a growing imperative for today’s knowledge-based workers. Hoarding knowledge is out, sharing and collaborating are in. In the User-Centric IT environment, people have intuitive and natural ways to share and collaborate with colleagues, partners and even customers. IT empowers collaboration rather than impeding it.

Mobility is a work-style preference, not a device.

When worrying about managing mobile devices, it’s easy to lose sight of the people using them. Mobility is a way of life. People expect access to information from anywhere at any anytime via any device. User-Centric IT goes beyond simply allowing mobile access to limited services, instead supporting the mobile work style from any device. The User-Centric IT organization empowers people to be productive from anywhere, using the best device for the task.

Security should be inherent and transparent to the user experience.

Security and compliance are both mission-critical. In fact, security is more important than ever as the information economy continues expanding. But when security goes head-to-head with convenience, convenience almost always wins. Heavy-handed security measures or cumbersome processes are counter-productive, as users will find workarounds. Security must be ever-present, inherent but invisible, integrated into the systems presented to the user without creating friction or delays.

source: http://ucit.drupalgardens.com