Bosses in IT have been urged to embrace the principles and technologies of enterprise 2.0 to increase knowledge and productivity within their companies, it has been reported.

Vnunet.com reported comments made by Tom Austin, an analyst from Gartner, who stated that social software and other Web 2.0 ideas and concepts had a place in the office, as they were all part of the "inevitable trend towards consumerisation of IT".

He told IT specialists not to construct rigid IT structures as this restricted the work of employees who would become more productive in their sector when allowed to embrace 2.0 technology as it creates a relaxed, social and informal environment.

Mr Austin said: "It is not IT giving up responsibility but pushing some onto the end users, because if you do this they will discover things they never could have otherwise."

Tom Austin hails from Brooklyn and helped developed Gartner's involvement in the area of network computing, having engineered communication between big companies such as IBM and Microsoft in the 1990s.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent)