I’ve long been fascinated with technology tradeshows, going all the way back to the heydays of Comdex. Over the years, tradeshows have sort of ebbed and flowed in popularity, but one thing remains constant – they know how to jump on a tech trend.

In recent years, the number of cloud computing tradeshows, like Cloud Expo, has skyrocketed. I attended many of the first few early shows where the exhibit halls were pretty much ghost towns. And the aisles were filled with unknown company names. But as more and more people got caught up in the “Cloud” mania, and more and more big software companies transitioned into big “cloud” companies, the scene on the tradeshow floor changed dramatically. Thousands of people poured in and millions of dollars too. Cloud computing was off and running.

In a couple of weeks, IDG will be hosting the Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise (CITE) show in San Francisco between March 4-6^th.  I believe it’s the first of its kind. Their site bills the show as:

“This new, national conference and expo gives IT and Business Executives, Venture Capitalists, and a wide array of Business Technology decision makers, a holistic view of how personal technology is changing and infusing the workplace – with the ability to drive innovation and productivity to new heights. Embracing this trend is critical not only for attracting and empowering the next generation workforce but for retaining customers and creating business advantage.”

(Note: Follow news from the show at #CITEchat or http://www.facebook.com/CiteConference.)

More interesting perhaps is the list of sponsors. There are many companies similar to TrackVia, who provide a do-it-yourself application platform for non-technical business users. These are the companies you’d expect to see there. The ones who have long promoted and pushed the consumerization of IT movement within enterprises. Companies like Box.net, YouSendIt, LongJump and others. But surprisingly, big guys like Microsoft, SAP, Citrix and Cisco have already jumped on the bandwagon and soaked up all the notable sponsorship spots (paying top dollar no doubt). And while I’m sure these old guard companies have invested in the consumerization of IT movement, I can’t help but think how fundamentally out of place they seem.

Still, nothing says a new tech trend has arrived like a tradeshow.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think TrackVia is the greatest thing since sliced bread. In fact, I think it’s a solution that actually has the potential of changing the technology world as we know it, liberating everyday non-coding users to design and build business solutions that work the way they do.  We see and hear it every day from our users. Customers building one-of-a-kind cloud-based applications, or designing their own custom CRM or inventory or project-tracking solutions. Still, it can sometimes be a challenge to write press releases about an “online database” or “application builder” that sounds super exciting.

One way we try to overcome this challenge is by using colorful language. And we try to have a little fun too. Now some people would consider this approach to be more B2C (business to consumer) marketing versus traditional B2B (business to business) marketing.

But is there really a difference between consumers and business buyers anymore?

Sure, five or ten years ago most business decisions about what technology to buy and use were made by committees. Managers, IT personnel, and executives log-jammed into a room, crunched the numbers, considered the pros and cons and voted. All very democratic.

But the world is changing. First, business moves much faster today. Who really has the time to take weeks, months or even years to decide which technology to use? Second, technology is no longer something we leave at the office. We carry it in our pockets everywhere we go, checking email or online applications in line at the grocery, on the sidelines at soccer games, on the chair lift up the mountain. And finally, technology has evolved such that you don’t need to know how to write code in order to implement code.  Many refer to this as the Consumerization of IT. Easy-to-use solutions like TrackVia make it possible for everyday users to build and deploy solutions that are EXACTLY what they need – not just sort of what they need.

The bottom line is that people – mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, executives, works, IT professionals, non-IT professionals – all have the ability to choose the technology that works best for them. And more and more businesses are realizing – and even embracing – this trend.

Call it what you want, but that sounds pretty exciting.

In a Harvard Business Review blog, Judi Glickman talks about confidence being a numbers game, and mostly highlights women as being overly critical of their lack of skill set, rather than focusing on what they do know.

“… The men rounded up, often lobbying for the job when they had a mere 50% of the stated qualifications (not even 51%!) while the women with 75% of the skills needed, took themselves out of the running. The men, masters of rounding up, had given themselves a chance, while the women, more qualified than any of them, had simply bowed out.”

This issue doesn’t only apply to women in the job force; it also comes into play with business users wanting to create new solutions. People look at all the features TrackVia has to offer and may think to themselves “I don’t know how to link a hierarchy of tables” or “I don’t know how to write a concatenate function” and so they turn away. But the beauty of TrackVia lies in our support. If you have even a 50% idea of what you need your app to do, we can fill in the gaps. And if you’re only able to describe 60% of the problems you have with your current solution, we can help with that too. It’s important to round up and recognize that identifying a problem and seeking a solution is already half the job.

In the words of Glickman, “Here’s where I think women get it wrong: we are perpetually rounding down, where, by all rules of mathematics, we should be rounding up.” You may think that you can only build 50% of an application – and the rest you have no idea. That’s what our solutions architects are for.

Give yourself a chance and start rounding up. You may find that you are able to build more of a solution than you gave yourself credit for. And if not, our team is here to pick up where you left off.

I know after reading Glickman’s blog I realized I’m guilty of rounding myself down. Have you ever been guilty of doing the same?

**SHAMELESS PLUG** We don’t only do intriguing apps, we do common apps too. Check out our webinar, How to Build Your Own CRM Solution, on January 24th at 2:00EST. Chris Basham will give step-by-step instructions on how to build a custom CRM using TrackVia.

1. Exotic Dancer Management:
   A talent agency that books exotic dancers for private parties and clubs has built a sophisticated application to track everything from dancer schedules and customer complaints to time clocks. The application also tracks blacklisted customers, employee information (such as stage names) and more.
2. Television Studio Noise Complaints:
   A television production company uses TrackVia to track and respond to studio lot noise complaints from neighboring residents. They also use the application to produce monthly reports, which they can then submit to city officials.
3. Counterfeit Crook Catching:
   A private investigation firm created a custom TrackVia application to track and manage online investigations of counterfeit goods online. The application tracks every step of their cases, from storing web addresses and IP address information to archiving shipment tracking numbers and storing photo evidence of the counterfeit goods. Once sufficient evidence is collected, the application produces a comprehensive report that aggregates all the data into a court-ready PDF.
4. Online Archives of Rare and Historical Spirits:
   A French museum holds over 8,000 bottles of historic wine, spirits, bottles, labels, etc from around the world. The application serves as a database of over 12,000 records, which include all the information surrounding each piece of the collection such as photos, descriptions, vintage and source, historical relevance and more.
5. Guest Complaint Tracking:
   An international luxury hotel chain has created an app for tracking, managing, and reporting on guest complaints amongst different locations. The application serves as an archive for all complaints over time, as well as a tool for creating in-depth reports based on criteria such as incident type, hotel employee, department, and others.
6. Overstock Car Maintenance and Storage:
   In 2008 car dealers were unable to accept more cars and thousands of new inventory had to be stored nationwide in individually contracted warehouses and lots. An auto manufacturer built an app to track VIN numbers, storage locations, contracted mechanics to check the cars, and maintenance reports.
7. National Survey of Brokers:
   A financial magazine conducts an “Annual Online Broker Review” using TrackVia’s webforms. They survey thousands of brokers across the country and aggregate the information into the annual reports. They also use TrackVia as an online archive of past years’ responses.
8. College Football Scouting:
   A Division 1 collegiate football team uses TrackVia as an application for recruiting high school football players. Scouts use tables to track data for prospects such as height, weight, stats, SAT scores, etc.
9. Colorado Rockies “Free Taco” Tracker:
   A Colorado Rockies fan created an app for free taco days. His email account receives a post-game alert and a calculated field determines if the Rockies scored 7 or more runs. If yes, then an email is sent out to all his subscribers letting them know that the next day is a “free taco day.”
10. Endurance Event Coordination:
    A global endurance race series built an application for managing event support. The app keeps track of support logistics such as water tables and supplies, transition areas, volunteers, etc.

In marketing circles, this is referred to as “Premium Pricing”.  According to Wikipeida, this is the practice of keeping the price of a product or service high in order to encourage favorable perceptions amongst buyers. In other words, we assume the more expensive solution is the better solution.

Lest you think this only applies to consumer goods (shoes, cars, electronics), it also applies in business. For example, we often talk with customers who use Salesforce.com to manage their sales. On top of the initial set-up and licensing fees, they typically pay about $125 per user, yet only using about 10 percent of the solution’s features. When we explain – and even demonstrate – that TrackVia can do everything they do in Salesforce at $18 or $20 a user, something strange happens. They lock up. They freeze. Despite what they’ve just seen demonstrated right in front of them and what seems like an obvious decisions, many customers find it difficult to believe. Or maybe it just doesn’t compute that the lower-priced solution could also be the better solution.

Most customers quickly overcome this instinctive feeling. Of course, it’s often quickly followed by regret. Regret they didn’t move to TrackVia sooner.

Sorry Salesforce.

1. Not Say “Yes” So Much: I’m a people pleaser by nature, so my default answer to most work-related things is “yes, I’ll do it”. Trouble is, by the time I finish doing all the things I’ve said “yes” to, I leave little time to do the stuff that really matters in my work.
2. Not Use Stupid Technology: There’s a lot of great technology out in the world for sure. There’s also a lot of crap too – software, games, websites, gadgets, phones, online services, etc. When I run into a crap technology, I often find myself trying to “fix” it, or second-guessing myself figuring it’s user error versus dumb design. Life’s too short to waste time on dumb technology.  Thank goodness for TrackVia. If I run into dumb business software, I’ll just kick it to the curb and use TrackVia to build it myself.
3. Not Over Complicate Things: A recent BusinessWeek article about Stanford University procuring Apple Computer’s archives revealed how Wozniak and Jobs came up with the company name. Given Jobs’ brilliance for marketing, I assumed they thought long, hard and deep about the name. Turns out it was the best name they could think of at the time, and Jobs figured it at least put them ahead of Atari in the phone book.  No over complicating there.

I could easily come up with several more things, but statistics show that I’ll forget these three in about a week. So if you need something from me, wait a week or so and I’ll probably say “yes”.

Do you have any work-related resolutions or un-resolutions this year?

Whether or not you believe BYOD is a new trend or not, it’s difficult to ignore the fundamental shift that is occurring between IT and business users. In what I think is an insightful blog, RWW’s George Watt highlights why the Consumerization movement is much more than just about employees bringing in their own mobile devices or using their “preferred” technologies. It’s about doing better business. George writes:

“Increasingly, requests for IT support of new technologies are more often stated in terms of business value today. It is no longer the case that users want their preferred technology to be supported because they like it better. There is typically a compelling business case accompanying the request, something people controlling budgets understand. They are seeking to increase customer loyalty and satisfaction, increase market share in their core business, reduce expenses, and achieve other tangible business objectives.”

I can easily imagine a day in the not-so-distant future when new employees show up to the job with their own technology in tow. Their own laptops. Their own mobile devices. Their own business applications. Sort of like a contractor shows up to the worksite with their own tools. If you don’t like the tools the employee uses to do their job, that’s fine. They’ll just walk and find another gig.

You can view the check list here.

Sure, people lose phones all the time. And IT’s desire to be able to install security software or wipe phones remotely to protect a company’s intellectual property is a very real and legitimate concern. But having worked at a large security company, I also know that people are often the weakest link in security – not technology. If you’ve every flown cross country, then you know what I mean. You’ve probably seen people pull up sensitive information on their laptop for the whole world – at least the whole plane – to see. Heck, I’ve even found company “confidential” reports tucked neatly in the backseat pocket of more than one flight. All the IT issued security in the world can’t police the human factor.

A friend and former security colleague of mine often talked about what he called the “IT box out”. This notion that IT often used security as a sophisticated form of sophistry to justify why things had to be a certain way. I’m reminded of that every time the topic of the Consumerization of IT comes up. IT says, “Oh, we can’t have employees bringing in their phones to access the networks. What if they lose it?”  Or, “We can’t have employees building their own applications, because what if it’s not designed securely?” If we choose to go down the “what if” rat-hole of possibilities, why stop there? What if … an employee leaves a confidential report behind? Should we ban paper documents or printing? What if ….. an employee has too many beers at the game, and talks about his big “project” at the office? Should we ban football games? What if ….. an employee talks about their day at work with a spouse, spilling the beans on something important? Should we ban…..You get the picture.

Here’s a radical idea. How about we treat employees like adults and spend more time on educating and enabling them versus trying to control them. Simply put, we explain the importance of keeping things safe and secure, and provide them with the technology – and more importantly the training – to keep things secure. I’ve worked at small and large companies, including 2 Fortune 100 companies. I received training on a variety of HR things, retirement issues, health issues,time management and more. But never in all my years did I ever receive any “security” training. (And remember, I worked for a security company).

I don’t know about you, but my phone has pretty important stuff on it above and beyond my work stuff. Personal email. Facebook account info. Pictures of my children and family. Bank account apps. It’s in my best interest to secure that stuff too. Frankly, I probably value keeping my personal stuff safe far more than I worry about keeping my work stuff safe.  Give me the tools and training, and I’ll do it.

Of course, many will say that you can’t count on employees to do the right thing and manage the necessary safeguards. To that I say, if you can’t trust them to act responsibly with their technology, how can you trust them at all?