????近年來，公司員工都帶著自己的智能手機和平板電腦上班，還在他們的寶貝上安裝能提高工作效率的應用程序和軟件，有時未經本公司技術部門的許可。能干的員工正將他們的技術用在辦公室里，谷歌（Google）、Dropbox等幾家面向消費者的公司不再袖手旁觀，開始爭取公司顧客。

????成立于2007年的Dropbox提供基于網絡的服務，一開始只針對消費者，用戶可以儲存照片、家庭視頻等大文件，并從任何一臺連接網上的設備上提取（用戶的頭2G空間免費）。而Dropbox的粉絲還通過它保存和共享工作文件。公司嗅到了這一機會，在2011年10月推出了面向辦公室的有償訂用服務Dropbox for Teams。這一服務適于IT部門管理，員工能各自管理用戶賬戶，付賬時，公司可以統一結清。

????所謂的企業市場一直利潤豐厚，即便針對它的創新落后于消費者市場。這一被Dropbox稱之為“合作應用”市場，目前被微軟（Microsoft）和IBM公司所統治，2010年的銷售收入為79億美元，2015年有望達到139億美元。

????銷售消費類技術產品的公司傳統上不太重視企業，原因之一是它們的增長狀況良好，用不著去吸引企業的信息總監。但是，隨著企業個人在設備、軟件上的界線變得模糊，消費類產品的技術公司也開始尋找新的利潤增長點，企業用戶就顯得特別有吸引力了。即便很少宣揚產品的企業功能的蘋果也在去年第四季度的盈利預告會上強調，公司在B2B方面有了好幾筆斬獲。在去年早些時候，蘋果還發布了供員工批量下載企業應用軟件的單獨軟件商店。谷歌的企業部門銷售一套由電子郵件、文件共享等網絡工具組成的商務套餐，其企業用戶包括Jordache Enterprises和美國維珍公司（Virgin America）。2011年10月，谷歌發布了對商業用戶的全天候支持服務，這是一種企業技術客戶所期待的貼身服務。

????但是，很多員工喜歡消費電子設備和軟件的原因在于極為好用。為了合乎公司要求而添加安全或其他功能，有可能增加復雜性，沖淡員工首先要求的美妙體驗。盡管如此，Dropbox的業務開發高管王晨利（音）認為，公司的新服務帶來了新的客戶。他說：“我們認為，有必要為公司的‘信息技術團隊’提供更好的用戶體驗。”事實上，企業IT人員正是消費產品技術公司要追求的人。他們也是消費者。

????譯者：古正

????In recent years employees have been bringing their personal smartphones and tablets to work and tricking out their gadgets (sometimes without the tech department's okay) with productivity-enhancing apps and software. Now, instead of standing by as savvy individuals co-opt their technology for the workplace, a handful of consumer-oriented companies such as Google (GOOG) and Dropbox are courting corporate customers.

????Dropbox, founded in 2007, initially targeted consumers with its web-based service, which allows users to store photos, home movies, and other large files and access them from any Internet-enabled device. (A customer receives the first two gigabytes of storage for free.) But fans also used Dropbox to save and share work files. Smelling opportunity, the company in October launched Dropbox for Teams, a paid-subscription service for the workplace. The IT-friendly version allows employers to manage user accounts and pay the tab on a single, companywide bill.

????The so-called enterprise market has always been lucrative, even if its record for innovation has lagged behind that of its consumer counterparts. The "collaborative applications" market Dropbox addresses, now dominated by Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM), had annual sales of $7.9 billion last year, and is expected to reach $13.9 billion in 2015.

????Sellers of consumer tech traditionally haven't paid much attention to companies, partly because they were growing just fine without wooing chief information officers. But as the lines between business and personal gadgets and software have blurred -- and as consumer-tech companies look for new sources of growth -- the corporate customer has become surprisingly sexy. Even Apple (AAPL), which rarely touts its enterprise capabilities, noted several business-to-business wins on its fourth-quarter earnings call, and earlier this year the company launched a separate corporate app store where employers can download enterprise apps in bulk. Google's enterprise division, which sells businesses a suite of e-mail, document-sharing, and other web-based tools (corporate clients include Jordache Enterprises and Virgin America), last month unveiled round-the-clock support for business customers -- the type of high-touch service corporate tech buyers expect.

????But the reason so many employees love consumer gadgets and apps is that they're super-easy to use. Beefing up security or other features to comply with a corporation's needs can add complexity and water down the elegant experience employees were demanding in the first place. Still, ChenLi Wang, a business development executive at Dropbox, sees the company's new service as adding a different type of customer to the company's member base. "We thought we needed to provide a better user experience for companies' information-technology teams," he says. Indeed, IT personnel are the ones consumer-tech companies need to hook. Consumers have already bought in.