It might be the latest entry in the “So they needed research to prove that?” category, but a new report from Gartner confirms what many desk-bound workers have known for years: technology is bloody frustrating.

According to the trend-watching researchers at Gartner, by 2013 more than 50 per cent of corporate IT users will be dissatisfied with the rate at which their IT systems are evolving. This will have jumped from the current level of 30 per cent.

The report says this rising dissatisfaction has a couple of root causes. First, there's the reluctance on the part of many organisations to embrace the web-based tools that individuals want to use as part of their daily personal and work lives. Second, there's the rising tide of 'Generation Y’ employees who want to make use of social applications and communication methods whereever and whenever they choose.

While the Gartner results may not be all that surprising, they do add weight to the thinking that companies need to be looking differently at the technology and systems they provide to their employees.

The days of the one-size-fits-all approach where monolithic, centralised applications are offered to everyone are rapidly coming to an end. Sure, staff might all need access to SAP or Oracle to do their jobs, but they need a host of other applications and services as well.

While it’s easier to offer just a few highly locked-down applications to staff, such an IT policy reduces productivity and increases frustration. It’s also likely many staff will find ways around it anyway, by bringing in their own devices or finding ways to use web-based services.

A smarter approach for organisations is to have a shopping list of applications and services available from which employees can select. While some will necessarily be mandatory to allow proper functioning of the organisation, others can be adopted by those who require them, when they require them.

Want to set up a corporate Wiki? Go for it! Feel like staying in touch with colleagues in a virtual world? Sure thing! Prefer IM to email? Not a problem!

While such an approach is likely to make life more complex for the corporate IT department, this will be quickly outweighed by the benefits that flow to the organisation as a whole.

Indeed, in coming years companies will have little choice if they want to attract and retain a new generation of workers who have never known a life without rapidly changing technology.

Just as mainframe computing made way for client-server and later web-based systems, so the management policies within IT departments must also evolve. Can your organisation afford not to change?