Here is an excerpt from an article written by Joe Peppard for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, obtain subscription information, and receive HBR email alerts, please click here.

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Many executives pine for their internal IT systems to give them a more consumer-friendly experience. They point to the simplicity, ease of use, and hassle-free nature of the digital services they use in their personal lives: the apps on their smart phone that make services available at the push of a button, software that can be installed and configured with the click of an icon, the ability to plug a printer into a laptop’s USB port and have it ready to print, a tablet that can be connected to the internet without any cautionary pop-ups warning about potential security risks or possible compatibility problems.

In the consumer IT world everything just seems to work, they lament. Why does corporate IT make things so complicated?

Unfortunately, most executives don’t recognize that consumer IT and enterprise IT are different animals. They don’t understand that they must play the pivotal role in the critical decisions that shape enterprise IT — decisions that they leave to the likes of Yahoo, Apple, Google, and Vodafone in the consumer world.

In the consumer world, all digital services are vanilla versions. Sometimes, you can opt for either cheaper or more expensive versions with less or more functionality. But as a customer, you have no input into what is offered; you either take it or leave it.

In the corporate world, however, the “leave it” option typically doesn’t exist. All too often the functionality, user experience, logic, and workflow decisions of exactly how the application will work are made by the software vendor or app developer with no input from users. This is a colossal mistake and is the downfall of many IT projects. While a vanilla version of a software application can be okay (and many corporations use standard versions of major vendors’ ERP software), any choice should be a business decision made by business managers for operational and strategic reasons.

With consumer IT, the services on offer are, for the most part, “point” solutions delivered from the cloud, operating in an asynchronous mode. Consider that you wish to travel to another city to see your favorite band play a gig. Unless you have already established online profiles at the companies, when you book a flight, a rental car, a hotel, and the concert tickets, you will have to enter your name, address, phone numbers, and credit card details for each and follow each company’s unique booking process. Aggregators like Expedia and some airlines will argue that they do allow you to book both flight and hotel from the same portal. But what if you wish to stay at a boutique hotel that is not a partner? And can you really be sure that you are getting the best deal?

Operating this way today is a big no-no in the corporate world. Imagine if your company’s internal applications couldn’t share data and processes carrying out similar functions or tasks, had different interfaces and screen layouts, and required different passwords. Just think of the inefficiencies and opportunities for errors.

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Here is a direct link to the complete article.

Joe Peppard is a professor at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. To check out his other HBR articles, please click here.