What about the second group, those who slug it out in the corporate trenches consuming IT's services every day? Well a better name for this group would be "consumer." In the for-profit world, consumers are customers who have a transactional relationship with a vendor. The customer might visit a business every day, but each transaction with the vendor is independent of every other transaction. Retail stores and restaurants tend to have a consumer relationship with their customers. End users, though they might rely on IT's services every day, actually interact with the IT organization only occasionally, and those interactions are episodic. This is more of a consumer-type relationship.

Why is it important to distinguish between IT's clients and consumers? Because what each group wants from IT differs. Clients are concerned with ensuring that IT can provide the services needed to generate corporate revenue, support the business strategy and do it within budget. Consumers want hardware that does not break, applications that do not go down, and quick and effective response when something does go wrong. They care not a whit about IT's mission, strategy or budget.

Whom does IT need to please? Both groups, but the gotcha is that what will please one group will not necessarily please the other. Both IT clients and IT consumers want high availability, but the consumers might want top-of-the-line PCs and the fastest bandwidth possible, while the clients usually prefer less expensive choices.

How is IT doing in satisfying both customer groups? The results are mixed. Clients should be pleased with IT's efforts to ensure that the IT strategy is congruent with the business strategy. But what does this do for the IT consumer? Not much.

Catering to one and ignoring the other is a no-win strategy. The consumers generate the revenue IT likes to spend. Ignoring this group is a non-starter. On the other hand, IT is not going to get the chance to satisfy the consumers unless the clients say so. .