BLP's Janet Day discusses how the iPad has moved from consumer device to valuable business tool

For the first time in a while IT teams are being besieged by users wanting stuff – what they really want is an iPad, preferably the latest version, together with your 'enterprise app' and every other tool you can imagine. What has generated this phenomenon – and is it real or just hype?

User demand and technology changes have often overlapped to such an extent that it is hard to see which came first. Did the rise of the personal computer, and then the laptop, precede the need for individuals to work more flexibly, or was more flexible working the product of these technical changes? Did BlackBerry manufacturer RIM spot a real gap in the market – email on the move – or did the market respond to a well-crafted solution to a problem that didn't necessarily exist? There are no clear answers to these type of questions.

In parallel, then, it is worth looking at the unprecedented rise of the iPad (all tablets, really, but the iPad currently has market domination). What drives the desire of individuals to possess an iPad and what drives them then to move outside their comfort zones – effectively creating new comfort zones – just to maximise the use of this device?

Is this professional peer pressure driving this rise, or is it domestic peer pressure? The iPad has achieved this – and it has achieved it across generations. Indeed, Steve Jobs, a baby boomer himself, never failed to sell to his generation. The iPad is a device transcending generations, it is gender non-specific, it is type non-specific – in short, it has an endless population to whom to sell.

Of course, other changes contribute as well. The increasing reach of high-speed connectivity makes this device easier and easier to use, the coffee shop culture makes it a simple device to have to hand. Maybe, however, the rise of sophisticated apps (making the device acceptable at a range of levels) has also encouraged the hype. The scene on my early morning train is much less pink than it used to be – but there are a lot of iPads consuming online newspapers as well as other news services.

So if we accept that the iPad started life as a consumer device – does it really justify its existence as a business tool? There is no question that the iPad makes it easy to get email on the move or from somewhere other than your office. It does a huge amount more than that, though, from a work perspective.

If I need to read a vast amount of information, carrying it on an iPad or similar device makes much more sense than carrying endless tomes of paper around. Annotating that information on an iPad is simple, and for a reviewer it is a comfortable interface.

If I need to consume complex financial data and share it with an audience, my iPad helps me both consume, display and deliver that information. If I want to talk to colleagues on the move, the combination of my iPad and Skype or similar tools creates a much more flexible and personal link than my mobile phone has ever achieved.

If I run 'to do' lists or want my diary on display while I am working, my iPad can act as a second view on my working and personal world – saving me time and confusion. So these are business uses – not necessarily core information construction, but information consumption and communication.

Then we move to the 'business need' point. This is tricky to define – the thin line between nice to have and absolutely essential is not only thin, but wavy – what might be nice to have for some lawyers on some transactions can become an imperative for the same lawyer on a different transaction or a different lawyer on the same transaction.

Can even the most dedicated and thoughtful IT team know how the transactional lawyer under pressure will feel on a particular occasion? Almost undoubtedly not. So it behoves the technical support team to flex a little with these user demands. Of course, that does not mean we should blindly agree to every user request or, even, demand.

We should continue to be vigilant in the pursuit of information security. We need to ensure that we can access and destroy corporate data if it is believed to be lost or compromised. We should insist on a level of usage standard around that corporate data – that is a professional imperative. Where we should not venture is to interfere with the personal preferences or pursuit of the use of these really cool devices for activities outside the business area.

We all work hard in an increasingly complex world – the boundary between personal, social and business is now so blurred it is impossible to clearly and certainly identify it. If, in order to maintain that level of focus and commitment, some people take their downtime as a session playing Angry Birds, that is fine.

So, the iPad: a consumer device constrained into a business tool – or a real business tool? Users are driving this change; this is the device they want – and so they will make it work – even when that is well outside their comfort zone. And why not? Pleasure and work are inexorably linked in the use of this device – yes, business tool, but still really cool.

Janet Day is IT director at Berwin Leighton Paisner.

• Related: Rise of iPad generation sees firms face up to mobile working demands

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