SaaS apps have freed teams at work. They also freed their spending budget, in an unwarranted way.
According to Capgemini 59% of AI spendings and 48 % of SaaS spendings are completely out of the grasp of the IT team.
This means almost 1 out of 2 expenditures is made without prior agreement from those responsible for IT budget management. This is all but a harmless number.
It tells of a time when each team becomes their own technical direction, purchasing unit as well as owner of their dedicated digital strategy.
If this independence is certainly the root of agility to some extent, it has now turned into a budgetary blind spot for some organisations.
SaaS is undoubtedly a great tool to go further, faster. When everyone starts going faster on their own path while losing connection, a company may lose all sense of cohesion.
Shadow IT also includes this small tool somebody purchased “only to test it out”.
Then got stretched to another department, and just like so, without anyone noticing, it became a monthly billed subscription on the company’s credit card.
Let us say you subscribe to one design tool, one project planning tool and not forgetting an HR software to finish it off.
This makes it almost impossible for anybody within the company to have an overall idea of what is being used.
This is not a bug, it is the natural consequence of how simple SaaS is. It requires a few clicks to get started with a trial version.
Something you can do without reaching out to IT nor filling out a ticket, since you have the upper hand to get it all done.
Meanwhile everyone feels super free, the bill grows bigger, so does silent chaos: unused licences, duplicates, lack of integrations, security breaches… Each individual incentive adds up to a costly sum.
What started from a will to be more efficient shapeshifts into fuzzy layers of software licenses.
The bigger the SaaS stack gets, the fuzzier management of it: one random forgotten subscription that ought to have been canceled here, one unsteady update laying around over there, and what about this customer data roaming around carelessly as if GDPR was not a thing?
Shadow IT goes beyond overspending, it is the ideal environment to foster security issues.
Once Shadow IT has been identified within or organisation the first reaction is usually to put everything under lockdown.
The heavy return of IT’s intervention at all decision levels and a drastic drain (and load) on everyone’s workflow. This is a pointless move.
It pushes everyone away from natural compliance to force things. Everyone feels frustrated, no one feels satisfied. The aim is less to impose virtual and clumsy control than to build long-lasting trust.
SaaS management is no pretense to become a tyrant. It seeks balance and structure management. Having a clear framework where everyone knows precisely what is possible, how to notify a new tool, and what the protocol is with IT is essential.
Without suppressing coworkers’ autonomy it can be made more easily traceable
What becomes too expensive is all the cost that remains hidden: duplicates, superfluous premium features or dormant tools no one uses.
This is precisely when a SaaS cost monitoring tool comes in handy.
Most innovative companies have changed their approach to cost monitoring. They want to assess real usage value.
How many people log on? How often? To do what?
From then on, decisions become obvious. A tool massively used and integrated in work tasks is worth being subscribed to. Another, less used, can be replaced, merged or deleted.
This is not a one-time sorting type of job. It is a whole mindset to follow: monitoring, measuring and modifying as best as possible SaaS management then turns into a mere common routine task.
What about IT management in all this? IT switches back to what it should have always been: a strategic partner. An anchor point, helping each department to make the right choice, not stop them.
SaaS is not responsible for companies’ lack of management. It changed the way they interact with and use technology.
For a long time, independence was a strength. Now, this needs an appropriate framework to be sustainable.
Shadow IT is not a mistake, it is a warning sign. Teams want to do, decide, and move forward. It is up to IT management to make sure this willpower gets infused into strategic synergy.
Unsure whether your company harbours Shadow IT practice? Take the test!
The key to an efficient SaaS management lies in a clear, shared vision where every cost serves a purpose. An optimisation where agility does not happen in spite of security protocols.
