Forbes.com has an article this week about Shadowing IT.  As Dan Woods puts it, “Fueled by their frustration with the solutions provided to them by corporate IT departments and by the power of readily available software tools via the Web, users have started creating their own solutions in the shadows.”  

These solutions should be embraced! 

One of the biggest differentiators these kinds of solutions offer is the ability to quickly deploy them!  Take for example intelligent Agents…  Intelligent Agent technologies offer the ability for the end-user (the business-user, the researcher, the analyst, portfolio manager, whoever he or she is) to quickly train and deploy personalized intelligent software Agents to carry out the time-consuming, tedious tasks of data aggregation and mining.  Agent technologies empower the end user, rather than burdening the IT department. This empowerment should be viewed as HELP, not HINDERANCE.  We see it as a cost-savings, an ROI to the bottom line! 

It may take an IT department months to spec-out a business case, put a system in place, test it thoroughly, and roll it out to their users.  By that time, the main purpose of the exercise may be lost or too much time may have passed for the full value of the application to be realized.  We all understand the need for governance.  We understand the need for policy.  But if the end user can create and deploy his or her own time-saving, ROI-producing application, why shouldn’t they? 

I believe in Shadowing IT and like to believe that intelligent Agents are just one of the many Web 2.0 technologies that enable “do-it-yourselfing,” in the shadows.  It’s about time these cost-saving, ROI-producing, productivity amplifying tools creep out of the shadows and take their share of the limelight.  These tools are valuable to the bottom-line and will continue to become more popular and prevalent in today’s competitive tech-savvy organizations.  These tools are not going to wilt in the sunlight, they are going to feed on the creativity and applicability of the business user and flourish into technologies that the most competitive companies and best IT departments will be clamoring to share with their users. 

I’m sure many have read the 3 recent Gartner Hype Cycle reports published this month:

• Hype Cycle for Web and User Interaction Technologies, 2008
• Hype Cycle for Application Architecture, 2008
• Hype Cycle for Content Management, 2008

It makes me wonder… should we worry that mashups and web-oriented technologies that enable user driven innovation will soon reach their Peak of Inflated Expectations and then plunge into the Trough of Disillusionment? Knee-deep in the value that these applications offer the enterprise, I have a hard time believing this will happen. But, I can step back and take a good look at what I see happening. While I appreciate their value, I am emerged day in and day out in the sell-cycle and marketing of these applications, which makes me realize that it takes a special kind of person to fully grasp and appreciate the efficiencies of time, cost-savings and data collection these applications offer. Not to mention (and much more important), how they deliver and present unique views of data that feed decision-making and provide business intelligence that can truly differentiate one company from the rest of the pack.

Let’s consider the world of financial research… For some time now experts like Integrity Research have been alerting us to changes in client demands. They’ve explained the diminished perceived value of sell-side research. They’ve reported that buy-side firms are bringing the functions of analysis and research in-house.

While they don’t specifically point to financial research, six months later we have Gartner, in their own way, validating some of the technologies being used to gather intelligence, collect financial research, aggregate data and glean insights through Web2.0 applications.

Perhaps now what we need is a training course for the researchers, the knowledge workers, the analysts… While they now have more innovative ways of gathering intelligence, addressing research and presenting results at their fingertips, these tools won’t help the enterprise unless the people using them have a vision, a well-greased imagination or the insight to compare, contrast and plot seemingly unrelated data to find correlations… and let’s not forget that they’ll need a way to share their findings.

Wouldn’t it be remarkable if mashups and composite applications used for business intelligence and insight could spread like wildfire across the enterprise? I believe it’s possible but, only if the people conducting the research and collecting the data to be used for analysis DARE TO IMAGINE.