Shadow IT - the commissioning and sourcing of core IT products and services by departments other than IT - has been used across organisations for some time, but it is only now that IT decision makers are beginning to fully appreciate the extent of it. It is a way of working that is increasingly becoming the norm for business departments, who are independently deploying solutions with increasing frequency, despite the risks that may be involved. IT departments must now adapt if they want to retain some element of control over the way technology is utilised within their organisations. We surveyed 200 IT decision makers and 200 business decision makers in organisations with more than 1,000 employees, in both the UK and the US.

1. Out of the
shadows:
Wake-up call for
IT departments
Intelligent Market Research

2. 2
Out of the shadows:
A wake-up call for IT
departments
Shadow IT – the commissioning and sourcing of core IT products and
services by departments other than IT - has been used across organisations
for some time, but it is only now that IT decision makers are beginning to
fully appreciate the extent of it. It is a way of working that is increasingly
becoming the norm for business departments, who are independently
deploying solutions with increasing frequency, despite the risks that may
be involved.
IT departments must now adapt if they want to retain some element of
control over the way technology is utilised within their organisations.
We surveyed 200 IT decision makers (ITDMs) and 200 business decision
makers (BDMs) in organisations with more than 1,000 employees, in both
the UK and the US, to nd out more about shadow IT.
Find out more:
Read our latest blog
‘An alarm call from the
shadows’
Or for a more in depth
view take a look at our
recent webcast.
SHADOW IT
IS HAPPENING
CORE IT PRODUCTS/SERVICES ARE BEING
COMMISIONED BY DEPARTMETS
OTHER THAN THE IT DEPARTMENT
Emerging from the
shadows
It is clear from our research that shadow IT is not
in its infancy. More than three quarters of ITDMs
admit that departments in their organisations
are engaging in shadow IT; although they
underestimate how long it has been occurring.
The majority (58%) believe it has been
happening for less than two years.
Of the BDMs whose departments do commission and source IT products and
services independently of the IT department, 67% say they have been doing it for
more than two years.
Half or more of both ITDMs and BDMs, however, believe that the prevalence of
shadow IT is only going to increase in the coming years.
All respondent types also had similar views on which products and services are
being commissioned through shadow IT. Application software, IT security and
application development all feature highly.
Find out more:
What is shadow IT and is
this something new? Find
out in our video interview
with Nicole McNab, Project
Manager at Vanson Bourne.

3. Top down or bottom up?
Shadow IT is far more than employees
downloading applications on their own
devices for work purposes. It is the well-planned
implementation of specic solutions and it
is mainly being managed from the top down.
76% of BDMs whose departments are engaging
in it say that heads of department or other senior
members of sta are leading the way when it comes
to shadow IT.
? ?
The response from ITDMs is largely the same: 41% of those surveyed, who
acknowledge that shadow IT is happening in their organisation, say that it is being
driven by heads of department.
With senior members of sta steering it, it is not going to be easy for ITDMs to
question – or indeed tackle – the engagement with shadow IT.
Furthermore, although IT and business departments do not wholly agree on
which departments are sourcing and commissioning their own technology
solutions both show a wide spread across all departments within organisations
with those that are typically outward-facing such as client services and marketing
featuring highly.
Find out more:
Download our ‘Shadow IT:
The Headlines’ infographic for
the headline stats.
ITDMs WHERE SHADOW IT OCCURS BDMs WHOSE DEPTS ENGAGE IN SHADOW IT
SAY THE DEMAND
IS COMING FROM
DEPT HEADS OR
SENIOR MANAGERS
41% 76%
JUST 9% OF THESE ITDMs 5% OF THESE BDMs
SAY IT’S COMING FROM EMPLOYEES OR DEPT STAFF
3
What you want isn’t
always what you need
With the widespread adoption of
cloud, it has become easier for
individual departments to commission
their own applications and services,
bypassing the internal IT departments.
Almost 60% of BDMs in departments that utilise shadow IT, say that they
do it because it is quicker; while 41% believe they know their needs
better than the IT department and so get what they really want if they
source it themselves. Even 63% of BDMs in departments not currently
exploiting it see it as a potentially quicker way of getting what they want.
Mirroring this, ITDMs also believe that departments engage in shadow IT
because they think it is quicker (74%) and because they think they know
their own individual IT needs best (55%).
But departmental heads do not always see the bigger picture that
ITDMs do and sourcing technologies outside of the internal IT
department could have a detrimental eect on the whole organisational
digital estate.
Find out more:
Nicole McNab
discusses 'Why and
where is shadow IT
happening?’ in our
video interview.

4. 4
Risky business?
The biggest risk of shadow IT is that
IT departments are losing control of the
products and services used across their
organisations – they can no longer see
everything that is being deployed and
operated within their companies, so can
no longer manage the associated risks as
well as they used to be able to.
Find out more:
Find out more about the risks posed
by shadow IT.
As well as a potential duplication of capability between departments and
a loss of economies of scale, shadow IT also represents a fundamental
shift in power between IT departments and the rest of the organisation.
It is a wake-up call to IT departments. They are not going to be able
to prevent shadow IT occurring, but essentially they will always be
responsible for technology within their organisation, whether they
sanctioned it or not. They must therefore adapt to retain control of IT
and move from being the provider of technology to become the overall
guardian of it.
Find out more:
Watch our video interview with Nicole
McNab, where she discusses whether
IT departments should be worried
about what shadow IT means for them
Access the full in-depth market research results on shadow IT
on our website here.
Alternatively click on the links below:
Shadow IT - IT decision makers
Data Summary
Shadow IT - Business decision makers
Data Summary
Shadow IT: The Headlines
Infographic
Shadow IT: Out of the Shadows
Webcast
An alarm call from the shadows
Out latest blog post
Intelligent Market Research