Modern IT departments typically employ one of three strategies to contain and control the proliferation of consumer technologies, or "shadow IT," within the enterprise, according to Yankee Group. First is the "Seek and Destroy" approach, in which IT altogether bans the use of consumer technologies; second comes the "Solicit and Support" tack, where IT accepts the technologies staffers introduce into the network and adjusts its infrastructure accordingly; and finally, some IT departments choose the "Acknowledge and Ignore" response to consumer technologies, letting staffers use whatever applications and services they please without tweaking infrastructure.

However, none of these strategies harnesses the true collaborative power of consumer technologies and can lead to chaos in the IT department, according to Yankee Group's July report, <A HREF="http://www.cio.com/article/128500/IT_Needs_a_More_Zen_Like_Approach_to_Consumer_Tech_in_the_Enterprise">"Zenand the Art of Rogue Employee Management."</A> The research firm suggests that IT embrace consumer technologies via a "Zen-like," internal customer care cooperative model where "consumer technologies work side by side with enterprise applications and devices."