IT Pros Willing to Buy their Own Tech Products for Work

Almost three-quarters of IT workers surveyed said they would be willing to pay at least part of the costs for tech products if they could choose their own.

A poll from Unisys challenged 141 IT folks by posing the question: “What percentage of the cost of your job’s IT tools would you be willing to fund if you had freedom to choose what you could use?” Almost one-third (32 percent) said they’d be willing to pay for the full cost, 21 percent said they’d pick up half the cost, and another 21 percent said they’d kick in 30 percent of the cost. Only 26 percent said they would not pay anything to buy their own IT equipment, seeing that as the responsibility of their employers.

This latest survey sponsored by Unisys and conducted by IDC (News - Alert) is a follow-up to a more extensive two-part poll from the same two companies. The first phase of the survey, which questioned more than 2,800 IT pros, found that 95 percent of them said they already use at least one device at work that they bought themselves. The second phase, which polled 650 IT managers, found that 70 percent of them said they’ll continue to take responsibility for purchasing traditional computer products for company employees and cover any business-related expenses.

These polls point to the increasing “consumerization” of IT, a trend in which business users want to take the tech products and services they use at home and use them on the job. This trend, though, does open up a couple of thorny issues in the area of IT support.

On the one side are the employees who enjoy smartphones and tablets and social media in their personal lives. Seeing the benefits these tools offer, they naturally want to use them at work. But on the other side are the IT pros concerned about security and other issues, and are not always prepared to support all the disparate and potentially risky devices and services on their corporate networks. Of course, as these polls show, even IT pros have gotten into the act by wanting to use their own tech tools at work and going so far as to pay for those tools themselves.

If end-users and IT pros want to use their own devices at work, it’s ultimately up to IT to make sure those devices are secure and don’t compromise their corporate networks or data. It’s easier said than done, but sometimes it’s necessary since the consumerization of IT is a trend that isn’t going to go away.