Social media - the industry is still being persuaded

IT users expect their corporate lives to reflect their private lives, according to a report by analyst firm Ovum, at least when it comes to social media.

The report explains how organisations that do not harness social media could be creating huge problems for their IT departments. Apparently, users see social software as a necessity.

“As IT service desks increasingly move up the agenda in terms of importance for organisations, integration of social media will be seen by employees as a must-have, and a lack of availability could generate inefficiencies, such as workarounds, creating compliance issues." said Ovum lead analyst Mark Blowers.

IT departments could suffer by not providing the software. Businesses already up-to-date with the use of social media use sites to tackle IT problems - Twitter has been used to broadcast incidents and alerts.

Businesses need to be more adaptable in their approach and integrate the IT service management with the appropriate social media. Blowers said, "Social media tools can work well in IT service management, especially in bringing about improvements in the service provided to users.”

Social media is the monster that has to be trained by the corporate world – it cannot be ignored, and it will not go away.