All work and no play makes Jack a dull lad, so it might be time to accept that business and pleasure are becoming inseparable and recognise that this has advantages for all.

Since time immemorial IT vendors have attempted to build Chinese walls between kit for business and kit for the man on the Clapham omnibus. That's why you have a Microsoft Office and a Microsoft Works, a Palm Treo and a Palm Zire. It's a way to create a marketing demographic and a differential in price points. And guess what? It's pretty much all artificial. Most of these "consumer-grade" products are cut-down versions of their enterprise-targeted cousins but are often appropriate for the same tasks.

Instead of building barriers, IT professionals today have to understand that the miscegenation of biz tech and home tech is inevitable. In technology terms, the bridge between what were disparate worlds has been low-cost hardware and the internet. Just as the advent of the sub-£500 PC has put a computer in millions more UK homes, the internet has made it far easier for all of us to perform what were complex tasks.

Frequently, tasks learned for consumer purposes bolster workplace skills. Your first expedition to find a low-cost source for sink taps is reused when you're sourcing office supplies. The answer to both is Google - or another search tool.

This trend towards low-cost or free tools has coincided with more employers allowing their staff to work from home. At the same time, the rise of mobile computing and communications has meant that many of us do an increasing amount of our "office job" on road, rail or airline.

Unsurprising then, the laptop has become not only home to our productivity tools, but also our photo albums, musical collections, leisure interest web sites and games.
A side-effect is that erstwhile consumer technologies are sneaking into the enterprise and performing useful tasks, often without the explicit acknowledgment of the IT leader. Witness the rise of instant messaging, podcasts, web seminars, Google Desktop, My Yahoo and much else. Today's communications, calendaring and other applications often sit outside the usual domain of IT departments.

Rather than reacting against this with reprimands and calls for lockdown, some IT vendors and departments are buying into the trend. For example, sidebar gadgets on hosted applications may offer news, scores, weather and much else besides work tools.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a large percentage of helpdesk support calls could be resolved with basic user training. Having users who are familiar with applications and act as gurus to their families and friends should help to reduce the administrative burden.

Little wonder that firms such as Yahoo and Google have business teams, or that enterprise firms such as Cisco and Verizon and Dell are targeting consumers. Where users have had experience of products, word will inevitably be passed on to purse-holders - whether within organisations or domestic households.