There’s no single, quick solution for minimizing shadow IT use in your organization. However, these tips will help you proactively manage the matter. Realize that ridding your organization of unapproved IT products is not a quick task, and even your best efforts may not eliminate every instance. 

Even so, making a conscious and continual effort to curb shadow IT should achieve progress. That’s especially true if you get fellow leaders on board and help the workforce as a whole realize that it’s not as harmless as it may first seem.

It’s naive to think that shadow IT simply does not affect your organization and never will. Indeed, shadow IT’s definition means you don’t initially know about its use, but that doesn’t mean you should completely turn a blind eye. 

Assume that you do have a shadow IT issue, then task yourself with finding out the pervasiveness of the problem. Is it a case where there’s primarily a single team or department using unauthorized software, or does the behaviour exist throughout the whole organization?

Once you understand how shadow IT affects your organization, gather details that you’ll eventually present to other leaders in the organization. For example, tell them which teams use shadow IT, but don’t use an accusatory tone. Your task is to present them with a business risk to tackle rather than assign blame. 

It’s also good to approach fellow leaders with solutions rather than just bring them the identified problems. This shows you’ve thought about the issue at length and are ready to act.

Company technology leaders have varying opinions about shadow IT and its severity. However, one frequently held viewpoint is to avoid saying a flat-out “no” when they discover employees using unapproved tools. For example, some IT managers automatically see all shadow IT as dangerous or bad, but that’s an overly simplified view. 

The better approach is to tune into how workers want to get things done and see how the IT department can support them in such endeavors. Besides the tip earlier about talking with workers about obstacles, consider helping them get more acquainted with the tech tools your company already has available that have met approval. 

For starters, consider purchasing organizationwide licenses and make them easily accessible. Create a spreadsheet or similar list of all tools your company has approved, preferably grouped into categories or arranged alphabetically. 

There could be cases where an employee assumes your company does not have a license for a certain product and begins searching for a shadow IT alternative. However, having a company resource directory minimizes such situations. 

Finally, accept the inevitable cases where a worker will want to use something that falls under the shadow IT umbrella. This is why it’s particularly advantageous to take a hard line against such products. If employees know you won’t accept their usage request under any circumstances, they’re more likely to keep engaging with the product under the radar. Set protocols for people to go through before using any new IT tool at work and show that you’re open to expanding their access.

Since workers may not see the problem with shadow IT, it’s necessary to put yourself in their position by being empathetic about what likely caused them to look for external resources in the first place. From there, educate employees about the specific reasons unapproved programs and tools can cause issues.

The United States comprises 32% of the world’s tech market. Many cybercriminals target the country, especially because they know so much of the nation’s economy and industries depend on it. Some hackers also go after software with a wide adoption rate in the U.S. Finding and exploiting a flaw in a product that millions of people use substantially raises a perpetrator’s reach. 

Perhaps an internal investigation showed that a substantial percentage of employees use an unapproved team collaboration tool. You may also know that the product suffered a major security issue in the last month, making it particularly risky. Such a situation is an excellent teaching case because it shows workers that shadow IT is not as harmless as they may have thought. 

It’s also worthwhile to speak of shadow IT more broadly. For instance, software updates limit the technology risks to your business. They typically feature patches for known vulnerabilities and could include safeguards to protect against identified attack types that cybercriminals use. IT departments usually develop systems so all updates are installed as soon as they become available. 

However, personal users are not so diligent. Someone could be using an unapproved tool that hasn’t received updates in months or years. The outdated program could put their computers at risk, as well as any device connected to a workplace network.

Stamping out all cases of shadow IT usage at your organization is an unrealistic goal. However, you can make meaningful progress by asking workers about their technological difficulties and whether they specifically encounter troubles getting the software they need. After all, if employees find that the resources already available to them get the job done, they won’t need to rely on other options.

A study published in late 2020 found a 22-point difference between employees’ and companies’ responses about the perceived ease of procuring new software. The research said business representatives were more likely to overestimate how readily workers could access approved software. 

A positive finding from the research was that 41% of employees experienced generally improved access to technologies. Also, only one in 6 workers believed that shadow IT did not cause problems at their companies. 

If people acknowledge that their tech use could cause issues, they may be less likely to proceed. Even so, if they find that what IT provides for them doesn’t get the job done, they may resort to using other means despite knowing it’s potentially problematic.