As the lines between business and personal technologies continue to blur, employees will expect to smoothly integrate these aspects of their lives. That means that employers of choice will allow, enable and even encourage such a blending. At a recent gathering of CIOs, one woman remarked that most of us learned about technology on the job. Not so for the generation of workers now entering the workforce.

The continued spread of telework and globalization. One of the main byproducts of the "consumerization" of technology is a truly global workforce and a truly global consumer base. When you combine technology personalization with the trend toward telework and globalization, you can envision a workforce that chooses how and where it works and a customer base that is equally diverse.

And don't assume that this workforce or customer base will reflect the traditional domestic demographic. Increasingly, the people who work for us and buy our products and services will be an amalgam of individuals from around the world. So the expectation that employees will be working in the same locations as their co-workers -- or even on the same continent -- is becoming less feasible. Similarly, the idea that customers will be geographically centralized is already obsolete.

Some CIOs and executives will undoubtedly balk at some of these ideas, insisting that personal technology will never penetrate the corporate walls. I heartily disagree.

Barbara Gomolski, a former Computerworld reporter, is a vice president at Gartner Inc., where she focuses on IT financial management. Contact her at barbgomolski@yahoo.com.