ATOS

Out of the shadows: Stealth IT spend to increase by 20% in 2015

Research from Canopy, the Atos cloud, reveals 60% of CIOs say shadow IT spend was an estimated €13mn in their organisation last year with this set to grow in 2015 highlighting the need for greater IT governance to support digital transformation
               

London, 26 March 2015 - Canopy, the Atos cloud, today finds that almost two-thirds (60%)* of CIOs believe that shadow IT spend -  spend not specified or deployed by the IT department -  is more prevalent than ever, costing an estimated €13mn as a proportion of their company's global IT budget in 2014. Half (51%) of business decision makers echoed the figures, admitting that 5-15% of their departmental budget was being spent on shadow IT, amounting to €8.6 million. The figures are set to grow by over 20% in 2015.

Business decision makers whose employees are spending on shadow IT indicated that back-up needs were the primary driver, with 44% of respondents admitting their department had invested in this area in the last year. File sharing software (36%) and archiving data (33%) were also among the main causes of shadow IT expenditure. Interestingly, front end-related IT functions, often seen to drive topline revenue through digital transformation initiatives, such as mobility and social tools (28%), and analytics (27%), were less popular drivers for 2014 spend. Only 17% said delivering features and functionality for better digital experiences faster than the competition was a reason for circumventing the IT department.  

"Surprisingly, shadow IT is being spent on back-office functions - areas which for most businesses should be centralised and carefully managed by the IT department," said Philippe Llorens, CEO of Canopy.  "This finding shows that stronger governance is still required in most IT departments. As businesses embrace digital,  it is essential that the IT department not only provides the IT infrastructure and services to enable and support the digital transformation but also the governance model to maximise cost efficiencies, manage risk and provide the business with secure IT services."