Wayson Vannatta, the CIO at Nintex, offers insights into why a company’s processes might hold the key to solving shadow IT challenges. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

According to Microsoft, 75 percent of employees are using AI at work today, leading to increases in productivity. However, the same report found that 60 percent of leaders worry that their organizations lack a plan around AI implementation. With employee use of AI on the upswing while many organizations are still developing their plans for how to govern its use, it’s clear that shadow AI is quickly becoming a challenge for many IT teams.  

Shadow IT isn’t a new concept for IT teams. The rapid evolution of SaaS technology for all types of business use cases has created significant technology sprawl within organizations, as employees can easily turn on solutions to support their day-to-day work. So, if IT is out of the loop on the technology being used within an organization, what options do they have to govern AI and mitigate the risks that come with it? The answer lies in making it easier for employees to bring new technology into the organization with IT’s involvement.

The Root Cause of Shadow IT 

There are numerous reasons why employees choose to bring unauthorized technology into their organizations, like convenience and productivity. Some employees may also opt to bring in their own technology because they are too busy or are concerned that they will be bothering IT if they go through the proper channels. Regardless of the reason, the root cause of shadow IT adoption is tied to broken and inefficient processes.  

According to Capterra, half of businesses say shadow IT has formed in their organizations because there is a lack of understanding or awareness of the process for implementing new technology. If IT’s processes for getting new technology are so broken that it becomes too cumbersome for employees, they are more likely to turn to shadow IT.  

But it’s not just all about the employee’s lack of understanding. For example, if an employee does follow the process to submit a technology request but it is delayed or goes unnoticed by the IT team, they’re also likely to turn to shadow IT. In this scenario, not only do organizations open themselves up to the security concerns around unauthorized software, but it also puts a strain on and creates time lost for IT employees working on the request.  

What do both of these scenarios have in common? Inefficient processes.  

The Key to Improving IT Processes 

Far too often, inefficient processes exist because they are manual and disconnected. Organizations don’t know where the breakdown is because they have no visibility into the end-to-end process; the data isn’t shared between the people and systems it should be, and the user experience is often riddled with challenges. This is where process automation comes into play.  

Now, that statement may seem like a given, especially in the context of IT processes. Unfortunately, many organizations, including IT, struggle to automate their processes. The reasons vary, including manual processes being intricate and difficult to automate, legacy systems lacking the integrations needed to automate, and more. Following a framework for automation can help most organizations overcome these shadow IT challenges: 

• Identify where automation can be helpful and applied 
• Automate those processes with low-code tools 
• Scale adoption of new processes through modern, easy-to-use user interfaces 

By following this framework, organizations can speed up the fulfillment of new IT requests and curb shadow IT use. Here are a few examples: 

Map the IT fulfillment process

Get an end-to-end view of each step in the fulfillment process to visualize where bottlenecks and inefficiencies occur. Common bottlenecks occur around assigning requests and leaving reviews in the pending stage.  

Enhance experience and scale engagement

It’s also important to examine the user experience to ensure it has low barriers to entry. How are employees submitting their requests to the modernized process? By leveraging low-code application development tools, you can create a digital and intuitive intake form for employees.  

Automate bottlenecks

Once you’ve identified where inefficiencies are in the process and modernized the user experience, apply automation to streamline the sticking points. For example, automation can help you avoid requests getting stuck in the “assignment” stage by automatically assigning requests to the appropriate team or team member. It’s important to note that automated processes can succeed with a “set it and forget it” mindset. Continual monitoring and improvement are needed to ensure that the process functions properly. 

The rapid evolution of technologies like AI will only exacerbate shadow IT challenges facing organizations. That’s why organizations must modernize their IT processes today to avoid further shadow IT creep and prevent future security risks. End-to-end process automation is key to understanding where IT processes are breaking down, applying automation, and scaling new processes for maximum engagement—all while reducing the need for employees to turn to shadow IT for their technology needs.  

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