The "man on the street" video starts off harmless enough. Andy Bitterer, the co-chair of the Gartner's BI Summit, is in London trying to hunt down any commoners who know about business intelligence tools, data warehousing and corporate performance management.

Take a look:

Not surprisingly, few experts could be found. I admit, I chuckled a few times, and Bitterer seems like a nice enough chap.

But then I got to thinking about it some more. And it dawned on me that this video is, ironically, the perfect representation of the self-inflicted image problem that IT departments' and the entire IT industry itself have suffered from for decades: A technological arrogance that lurks behind and manifests itself in arcane techno mumbo-jumbo and smug conceit, that, for lack of a better word, really pisses off end users and has turned them against IT departments.

Do you know what a data warehouse is? How about OLAP or ETL tools? Do you have any idea what a database is? Business intelligence?

A befuddled Bitterer sums up: "People don't seem to know about business intelligence!" Shame on you stupid users!

In their own way, the interviewees actually provided Bitterer and the rest of us with the answer to what users most want from IT today—simplicity and ease of use in their software. One woman mentions Excel as her database tool, and one guy says: "I just use the Internet, really."

That shouldn't surprise anyone, especially when considering the massive uptake in SaaS applications: Those intuitive, easily accessible apps that users are flocking to.

Quite simply, IT today has to play the role of "interpreter" for users and then deliver the software that can help users get their jobs done. Period. Can you use a computer? Yes. Can you intuitively understand basic software? Yes. Do you have an Internet connection? Yes. Then you should be good to go. The "consumerization of IT" proves that the masses do care about and love all things tech.

That the "dim masses" of business users don't know the difference between Unix and Linux is not their concern. That's IT's concern.

Look at cars today. My Honda Pilot is one complicated machine, but you don't see the Honda engineers hanging it over my head that I don't know what an iVTEC engine is or how a Variable Cylinder Management functions. The interface on the Pilot is pretty darn intuitive: key in ignition, foot on break, shift into gear and go. The stereo, the heating system, the dashboard—all extremely uncomplicated.

For IT, it appears that the legacy of the past—in the form of a condescending gate-keeper role—is still alive and well. And that's too bad.

To many IT folks and analysts, there were some yucks to be had from that video. But, in fact, the joke is actually on Bitterer and all of the rest of us who feel a sense of importance over the common blokes who know nothing of OLAP and ETL tools.

Which is why IT is, in far too many companies, still viewed as a cost center not to be taken very seriously.

Follow me on Twitter @twailgum. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline.

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