The 'Consumerization' of Task Management in the Cloud

Just about everybody who has a full-time job these days will tell you that they are having a hard time keeping up with everything that needs to be done. And, ironically, the challenge that many users are starting to run into is that as they shift from working on traditional PCs, tablets and smartphones, it's getting harder to actually stay on top of everything.

From an IT perspective, this might not sound like the most pressing of business issues. But it turns out that for a lot of people the difference between utter chaos and actually being productive comes down to the way they organize their tasks. Most people today generally use some form of task management tool on a device such as a PC or a smartphone, but it's hard to share and synchronize that information across multiple devices or, even more importantly, a group of people who might be working collaboratively on a project.

This need is giving rise to a new generation of easily accessible Web collaboration applications that makes it easier for groups of people to work together regardless of what device they happen to be using at any given moment. There is, of course, no shortage of collaboration applications in the cloud, but the folks at Producteev are making a case for the creation of a dedicated task manager application in the cloud.

According to Producteev CEO Ilan Abehassera, task management used to be considered a poor stepchild to project management. But as the workplace becomes more social, Abehassera says task management is emerging as a stand-alone social application that needs to span multiple groups of people who not only use different classes of devices, but also different social network services. With the latest release of Producteev that was launched today, Abehassera says Producteev accomplishes that goal by making its service available on Apple iPhone, Google Android, Windows 7 and the Macintosh in addition to supporting a number of social network interfaces to facilitate collaboration.

 

Whether task management stands the test of time as an independent application remains to be seen. But what is clear is that the way people want to collaborate with each other is changing in ways that don't necessarily require a lot of assistance, or approval, from the IT department. The degree to which companies want to allow that to happen will vary, but it's pretty clear that large numbers of users are finding that the applications currently being delivered by internal IT organizations are not meeting their needs. This issue is ultimately driving a "consumerization of IT" phenomenon where end users, despite any number of compliance requirements, increasingly feel comfortable accessing Web applications with or without the permission of the internal IT department.

The alternative would be for the internal IT organization to become a whole lot more proactive about providing, managing and orchestrating the delivery of these types of applications. After all, what starts out with a few simple personal productivity applications in the cloud today can easily wind up devaluing IT organizations in ways that ultimately lead to more unemployment tomorrow - unless, of course, the IT department is seen as the organization championing the consumerization.

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