What Shadow IT Says about the Digital Employee Experience
With more than 4,500 employees spread across the globe, the UK-based investment management company was challenged to support dispersed user groups that depended on highly performing technology to satisfy clients.
Here’s how Lakeside Software’s Digital Experience Cloud, powered by SysTrack, enabled the firm to expand its visibility, achieve a successful VDI rollout, adopt a proactive IT approach, and consistently deliver a quality end-user experience.
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With World Productivity Day fast approaching on June 20, we want to recognize the importance of creating an environment that supports workplace productivity.
If you Google “Top Productivity Killers,” you’ll get a series of expected answers: cell phones, internet browsing, conversations with colleagues, etc. But what’s notably missing are the digital disruptions that impact an employee’s ability to do their job.
In May, we conducted a weekly LinkedIn poll not necessarily to challenge Google’s findings but for us to better understand employee productivity in the
Did you know that about a third of workers use shadow IT, which refers to “IT devices, software and services outside the ownership or control of IT organizations,” as per Gartner’s definition.
Shadow IT examples include attempts to:
• Install unsanctioned apps.
• Connect personal devices to the enterprise’s network.
• Solve tech issues without IT guidance.
• Create a new account (for example, signing up for a website with their work email).
Let’s say, for instance, that your company uses Microsoft Teams for video conferences, but a member of the sales department needs the Zoom app to communicate with a prospect. The employee downloads the software from the internet without consulting the IT department. The person has good intentions, wanting to get the job done, but this practice falls under the problematic scope of shadow IT.
It’s not surprising that so many workers turn to shadow IT. In many cases, employees are only trying to be more self-reliant, productive, or solve a certain problem. One could argue that shadow IT is also a symptom of the fact that digitally adept workers such as Gen Z and Millennials naturally expect some level of device and tech autonomy in their work environments to mirror their seamless non-work experiences with technology.
What’s more, hybrid- and remote-work environments have pushed many well-intended employees to turn to shadow IT, underscoring a lack of IT oversight within organizations as employees take the initiative to improve their own digital experience in their home offices while being remotely connecting to corporate networks. Users may resort to unsanctioned technology to:
• Accelerate work processes.
• Work better with external stakeholders.
• Foster innovation by trying new tools.
• Personalize their experience with workplace technology.
• Solve IT problems more quickly.
Whatever drives employees to turn to shadow IT, organizations can look to the use of unsanctioned technology as a cry for help to improve the digital employee experience. Let’s face it: many employees want a consumer-like experience with their tech stack at work, especially if “at work” means “at home.” As a result, they are highly likely to find that going through an approval process to use a new service or application is too frustrating or time-consuming to adopt.
In short, if employees believe it will take too long for IT to solve problems, they may attempt to find and use fixes on their own. Ergo, shadow IT.
As compelling as Shadow IT is, however, it poses many risks to the organization:
Security risks of shadow IT: IT teams cannot protect devices and applications they don’t know about. This blind spot leaves organizations vulnerable to cyber threats, data breaches, system performance issues, and non-compliance with regulations.
Operational inefficiencies from shadow IT: Storing data in multiple locations can create system inefficiencies and silos of information. If an employee is terminated, the organization might have difficulties accessing data stored in cloud-based shadow services. In addition, rogue devices and systems can affect the performance of the network.
Compliance risks of shadow IT: Organizations are often subject to regulations about storing sensitive data, and they may face fines or lawsuits if exposing sensitive data to breaches. Shadow IT creates additional audit points to ensure regulatory compliance.
Inaccurate data analysis and reporting because of shadow IT: In "What is Shadow IT,” the endpoint cybersecurity company CrowdStrike emphasizes that “in instances of shadow IT, organizations do not have a single source of truth when it comes to data,” eroding “the quality of insights produced from that data.”
Despite these risks, there always will be a degree of shadow IT that organizations have to contend with as employees try to customize their use of workplace technology. But understanding the appeal of shadow IT offers an opportunity for organizations to enhance the digital employee experience and workers’ day-to-day engagement with workplace technology. With the right digital employee experience (DEX) tools, IT teams can gain the visibility they need to manage shadow IT and, more importantly, the digital employee experiences that may prompt workers to go rogue with unsanctioned IT.
The rise of shadow IT reinforces the need for organizations to adopt a clear digital employee experience strategy. After all, shadow IT increases the chances that unexpected problems will emerge while making troubleshooting these problems more difficult. The irony here is that shadow IT, often intended as a quick fix, can lead to bigger IT headaches for the end user in the long run. Not to mention piling on issues for the IT support team.
Visibility is imperative for combating shadow IT. DEX tools give organizations the complete visibility they need to see shadow IT lurking within the IT estate and, in turn, to counter its security and operational risks. By collecting experience data through endpoint telemetry and employee surveys, DEX tools can enable IT to know what’s in use across the IT estate. From there, IT teams can monitor and measure how employees interact with workplace technology, either approved or shadow IT.
More importantly, DEX tools with robust data collection for delivering actionable insights help solve users’ pain points and minimize their need to engage in unauthorized practices in the first place. This comprehensive visibility enables organizations to:
• Understand what type of applications and devices employees use. With this data, IT can right-size resources based on employees’ needs..
• Ensure employees follow the best practices for cybersecurity and data privacy.
• Maintain regulatory compliance and system performance.
• Monitor threats, scan systems, and patch applications for vulnerabilities.
• Solve IT issues quickly thanks to automated root cause analysis (RCA).
• Take a proactive approach to IT support, fixing issues before users are affected.
So what does shadow IT say about DEX? A recent Lakeside Software survey indicated that 31% of the surveyed IT staff cited the proliferation of shadow IT as the main obstacle to ensuring IT provides a superior digital employee experience.
Shadow IT and DEX clearly go hand in hand. It’s safe to say that improving the digital employee experience will go a long way in solving the shadow IT problem.
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