Consumerisation is nothing new. When personal computers first arrived (together with office and database software from companies like Lotus, WordPerfect and Microsoft) they enabled people with a bit of money to equip their home offices in much the same way as their workplaces. The key phrase here is, "with a bit of money," as the earliest adopters of home technology were frequently the more senior corporate staff. With a simple floppy disk drive providing the connection between home and work, executives were quickly impressing each other with their database prowess or skill in creating presentations. Roll forward a few decades and technology has become a lot more accessible and affordable.

These days we use the term 'consumerisation' to talk about smartphones and 'apps', use of online collaboration and storage, and indeed, having computers and printers at home that are often more powerful or functional than corporate-supplied kit. The...