What Is The Cost Of Shadow IT Across You Business In Melbourne

It is not news that businesses are moving towards digital solutions as a cheaper alternative to maintaining costs without sacrificing productivity and efficiency.

After all, digital solutions are initially cost-efficient, and choosing a custom cloud solution is always an advantage.

However, with the need for more quality cybersecurity talent and SaaS platform costs spiraling out of control as databases and operations increase, businesses are constantly looking for how to make and keep making profits.

In all these, employees must adapt as fast as possible.

They must still meet set goals, hit KPIs, and follow up on potential customers.

In doing all these, they often need to compromise by using non-approved software for company work.

Using these unwanted apps is called shadow IT and has been known to help maintain and increase productivity and efficiency.

According to a recent Statista survey, 42% of respondents use personal email accounts for office work without informing their managers or IT Partners.

Therein lies the problem of shadow IT.

Using unlicensed software for company work can expose the company to malicious actors and end up costing the business far more than expected.

This article highlights the probable cost of shadow IT for businesses and some tips to avoid this problem.

What Is Shadow IT?

Shadow IT refers to using applications, devices, and services your IT department has not approved for company work.

However, it is imperative to note that most employees do not do this because they need to bypass company policies and software usage.

Instead, they do so because using these unsanctioned software helps them do their work easier and faster.

Using software that is not approved within your Business Tech Stack is a standard reflection of employee and company work characteristics.

It usually reveals the problems IT Partners and Business Owners In Melbourne face when choosing software for company use.

Here are some of the factors that can cause staff to engage in shadow IT:

• Little To No Training

When employee sare not adequately trained on using specific applications and technologies,they tend to fall back on familiar applications rather than look to improve on the new ones.

The technologies they go back to using are usually the ones they are comfortable with.

• Not acknowledging the employee's input

Employees do the actual work that needs to be done.

This means they are best placed to give information about what parts of software need adjusting and how well it helpsthem run their tasks.

Asking for their input before and after choosing software helps make the right changes and influence application use.

• Slow And Bulky

One characteristic of IT-controlled internet connections and file-sharing systems is that it is usually too slow to use.

This is why many employees use personally-preferred apps or personal internet connections to make their work easier and faster.

The best solution is to use cloud applications, where just about anyone can log in and get what they need.

However, maintaining cloud security is also vital.

True Cost Of Shadow IT For Your Small Business

While employees believe they are helping the company by using external apps that make work fast, the potential costs and impacts are increasing.

Here are some of these costs and risks:

1. Security For Business Owners

Security is an essential cost that shadow IT adds to businesses.

When an IT Professional chooses an app on the request of a business owner, they also choose based on security reasons,such as how that choice improves company-wide cybersecurity after carrying outrisk assessments, security, and migration tests.

Therefore,introducing an app or IT solution unfamiliar to a company network exposes the company to the possibility of security breaches and hacks.

This is dangerous on many levels, as it can cause a breach that the company might never recover from.

2. Compliance For Small Business

After security breaches, the compliance police comes OR Your Business might need a particular compliance e.g. SOC2 or ISO 270001

Every business owner who works with the Government Tenders or bigger Organisations knows how important it is to comply with regulatory standards and requirements – PCI, GDPR, RACGP – and breaches might indicate that these standards were not followed.

Placing the data of your customers at risk attracts heavy fines and loss of trust and reputation.

Breaking these compliance rules can cost your company loss of trust and reputation in front of your customers.

Coupled with the amount it will take to recover from the attack,payments can amount to millions of dollars alone.

This is why every business seeks to follow the standards as much as possible to prevent fines and loss of business, as this can also damage the business's reputation.

3. Financial Costs For Business Owners

Shadow IT is not always official, but it can be.

When different departments in the same company feel a need to purchase separate licenses for the same use, the costs can spiral out of control.

Cloud-based software is essential for SaaS and BPaaS business processes, but when different departments purchase separate licenses,the costs can be overwhelming after a while.

4. Double Budgeting For Business's Tech Stack

If companies decide to ignore shadow IT, it can get problematic for the already-purchased services of the company.

If the marketing team purchases another project management tool, it will mean that the initial tool will be largely ignored,thus wasting resource allocation.

5. Long-Term Cybersecurity Planning

Shadow IT poses long-term cyber securityrisks for business owners in Melbourne.

When employees utilise unsanctioned technology solutions, the Company's IT Partner may have limited visibility and control over potential vulnerabilities.

Over time, the accumulation of shadow IT applications can create a fragmented and complex security landscape that could be challenging to manage and secure effectively.

Solutions to Shadow IT For Business Owners Of Melbourne

All these costs are more than enough to cause IT teams to double down on shadow IT and protect the company's decisions and implementations at some point.

However,this does not always solve the main problem holistically, and it can cause some businesses to waste more resources on what should be blocked and how.

An increase in restrictions is not always the answer, as it can negatively affect employee productivity and overall efficiency.

Solutions such as BYOD with specific MDM policies and restricting the accessing of business data to company-allowed devices are just some of the many ways to stem the effect of shadow IT.

Also,purchasing software on a large scale allows businesses to plan on a wider scale than with shadow IT.

For instance, when a company purchases an app, it isusually done with the whole company in mind.

This will eliminate the need for discontinuous migration among separate departments and ensure long-term cybersecurity planning.

It is crucial to let IT professionals have a measure of control while reducing the restrictions placed on employees to do their work.

Custom Cybersecurity Solutions with XpressteX

The digital world is filled with security breaches and break-ins for businesses, and many of these breaches are by products of improperly managing the effects of ShadowIT.

At XpressteX, our goal is to ensure that businesses maintain a healthy balance between security and productivity. 

Contact us to learn how we can help your business.