When Customers Become Users

For most of my 25 years in IT there’s been a yawning gulf between customers and users.  Customers, the people who paid the bills, were rarely very passionate about the IT that they were buying for their users.  They wanted low cost, standard solutions from reputable manufacturers, with predictable roadmaps.  They wanted volume discounts, evaluation licences, free training courses.  These IT customers often didn’t even use the services they were buying, let alone evangelise them.  A CEO might mandate the use of video conferencing whilst continuing to fly, a CIO might promote collaborative working while continuing to use email all day long on their Blackberry.

The world is changing though, often the CEO and CIO are the most passionate about IT solutions from small specialist companies that are transforming their lives, from travel assistants, to personal assistants.  The new app-store delivery platform is providing a delivery channel from the entrepreneurial innovator straight to the C-suite turning them into evangelical users.

It’s a whole new world.