One major point of “blur” between personal and business is the BYOD (bring your own device) phenomenon that is driving major shifts in IT policy, investment and workforce policy. In a nutshell, you have a preponderance of people using their own devices to do work rather than using the device that the IT department assigns to them. This means the intensely personal relationship clients, employees and partners now have with their devices (overwhelmingly mobile) reinforces the expectation that interactions with your company will be not only be equivalently personal as the other “apps” they have on the device, but that the design and user experience will meet or exceed the experience offered in consumer apps.
Here is a terrific article on the topic BYOD and the new API border for the enterprise published this week by GigaOm analyst Matt McLarty. http://www.ow.ly/aalrz
This BYOD phenomenon will drive both the API-iffication and the App-iffication of the enterprise — meaning the digital experience that our customers, employees etc will expect will be web-services-driven, recombinant by the end user and tailored not only to them as individuals, but to their favorite device’s capability.
Just look around in your next meeting and see how many people have multiple devices (personal vs professional) and how many are just using their own (whether their IT policy supports it or not!)
Ethan McCarty 