We’ve all spent the last year or more talking about two of the biggest trends in the industry – the consumerization of IT and the “bring your own device” movement.

But just how widespread are these trends in actuality?

According to technology consultancy and solution provider Avanade, pretty darned widespread. The company’s worldwide study of “more than 600” senior business and IT leaders across 17 countries (including Canada) shows the vast majority of businesses are already there.

Specifically, 88 per cent of executives polled (87 per cent in Canada) says their employees are using their own personal computing devices for work every day.

The Avanade report paints this move as “an unstoppable shift” that not so much is about to happen, as has already happened.

Some more findings from the study:

• A majority of C-suite respondents (65 per cent globally, 66 per cent in Canada) list the consumerization of IT as a top IT priority within their companies, but;
• Only 20 per cent worldwide (24 per cent in Canada) believe allowing personal computing technologies into the business will benefit their recruitment and retention efforts, including efforts to attract key “millennials,” for whom greater workplace flexibility is often quoted as a key factor.

So what’s the attraction, then? Same thing it always is – productivity and doing more with less. According to the study, 58 per cent globally (and a whopping 71 per cent in Canada) said the best outcome for their business is  the ability of employees to work from anywhere. Coming in second: almost half – 49 per cent in Canada, 42 per cent globally – cited the fact that their employees are more willing to extend their workdays as a major driver.

Other notes from the study:

• Top applications for consumerization of IT include CRM (45 per cent globally, 42 per cent in Canada); time and expense tracking (44 per cent globally, 42 per cent in Canada); and ERP applications (38 per cent globally, 32 per cent in Canada.)
• 60 per cent of companies (both in Canada and worldwide) say they are adapting their infrastructure to accommodate employees’ personal technologies.
• On average, Canadian companies are earmarking 21 per cent of their overall IT budgets (compared to 25 per cent worldwide) to manage the consumerization of IT.

The below infographic (courtesy Avanade) looks at what the company describes as the six myths around the consumerization of IT.