Consider this:  according to research by technology analyst group Gartner, beyond 2010 end users, not the IT department, will be responsible for 50 percent of business IT procurement decisions—ultimately bringing and running their own systems on company networks. Meanwhile, according to management consultants Accenture, around one-third  of today’s new generation of workers (a group they call “millenials”) not only want to use the computer of their choice at work, but also want control of the applications they use too.

What’s driving this trend? Many have been calling it the “consumerization” of IT with the wide availability of cheap and powerful mobile devices and online services.

Although there have been some case studies of companies successfully enjoying  benefits from letting employees bring their own personal technology to the work place, there are very real dangers that you should be aware before adopting or allowing this practice in your business:

• Exposing your network to malware or security vulnerabilities and breaches because of unprotected devices
• Leakage of confidential or proprietary information
• Lower economies of scale in procurement
• Higher maintenance and support costs because of non-standardized configurations

Worried about this trend? Need to define a policy for your staff when it comes to bringing their personal equipment to the office? Contact us and see how we can help.

Related links:

• The rise of affordable consumer technology causes problems for businesses (sc magazine)
• Gartner releases business predictions for 2010 (global services media)
• Citrix tells their employees to bring their own laptops to work (usa today)

Twitter, the microblogging service used by CNN, Oprah and none other than President Obama seems to have taken the world by storm, and is fast becoming an indispensable tool for many small and midsized businesses as well

Twitter allows company owners to share short “tweets” or posts a maximum of 140 characters each to give quick, live updates to “followers” on the Twitter service. A few days ago, the Wallstreet Journal published an interesting article on how Twitter has become a life saver for many business owners in a crisis. One company used the service to update customers when their website went down because of a hacker. Another study from Warrillow, a consulting firm, says that small businesses are also using the service to search for deals and promotions online. In fact, according to the company, they use the service a whopping 7 times more than other social networks.

It’s interesting to learn the many ways that businesses are using services such as Twitter to their advantage. How about your business? Are you using it as well? Let us know!

Related articles:

• One in Five Tweets Are Free Brand Advertising (mashable.com)
• Facebook Adds Twitterlike Tagging Feature (myventurepad.com)
• 7 Times As Many SMBs Use Twitter To Find Deals (smallbizresource.com)

For some time now, at TCG we have started using Twitter, as a way to communicate with our Peers, Collegues and friends.

So what exactly is Twitter ? Twitter is a Social networking service which allows you to send updates (called Tweets) to your friends about what you are currently doing, anyone who is following you can read those tweets.. Twitter is known as micro-blogging, as it only allows you to send text-based which are 140 characters in length.

There are a number of celebrities who are using Twitter such as Stephen Fry and Johnathan Ross

Check out this website for a list of other celebrities who are using Twitter http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=14064863

Of course if you would like to know what we are doing on a regular basis, why not follow us on Twitter . See you there..