To Reduce Shadow IT, Transform the Request Management Process and Improve Access to Critical Tools: New Research From Info-Tech Research Group

By PR Newswire On May 26, 2023

As the future of work continues to trend toward hybrid and remote environments, the digital employee experience is a crucial consideration for organizations seeking to improve talent attraction and retention. While culture is a key component of employee satisfaction and engagement, tools and technology also play a significant role in the overall employee experience. Info-Tech Research Group, the trusted research and advisory partner of IT leaders around the world, has launched its new industry blueprint to support IT leaders in improving customer service, reducing shadow IT, and providing employees with the right tools and technology to improve the overall employee experience.

“An organization’s workers are expected to be productive and contribute to operational improvements or customer experience, but those workers don’t always have the tools needed to do the job,” says Sandi Conrad, principal advisory director, IT Infrastructure & Operations, at Info-Tech Research Group.

The firm’s research, found within the new blueprint, showed that in a recent survey of over 10,000 office workers, IT professionals, and C-suite executives, nearly half of employees indicated that they were frustrated by their tools, and more than one-quarter were considering quitting due to unsuitable technology. This frustration can often lead to an increased use of shadow IT, which is described as any software, service, or device brought into an organization outside of the ownership and control of IT.

The findings underscore a critical need to address the challenges IT is facing, but organizations may not know how best to approach a solution.

“One option is to give the business greater control, allowing them to choose and acquire the solutions that will make them more productive,” explains Conrad. “However, if the business doesn’t want to manage applications but just wants have access to better ones, IT is positioned to provide services for application and equipment sourcing that will improve the employee experience while ensuring applications and equipment are fully managed by the asset, service, and security teams.”

In response to the need for direction on improving service and reducing shadow IT, Info-Tech has designed an approach for IT leaders to improve the request management process to create sourcing-as-a-service for the business.

The approach consists of four steps, as outlined below:

Design the service. The first step involves collaborating with the business, identifying challenges and obstacles, gaining consensus on priorities, and designing the service.
Design the catalog. Step two asks IT leaders to determine the catalog scope, create a process to build and maintain the catalog, and define metrics for the request management process.
Build the catalog. Next comes the need to determine descriptions for catalog items, create an application portfolio, and design catalog forms and workflows. This is also the phase in which definitions for license types, workflows, and service level agreements (SLAs) are created.

Market the service. Finally, IT leaders must create a roadmap, determine messaging, and build a communications plan.

The firm also cautions IT leaders to ensure executive sponsorship is in place, as service request management may require investment in tools, skills upgrades, and time. There may be a need to negotiate within stakeholder teams to find the right balance between controls and service. Without executive sponsorship, it will be difficult to make progress in a transformational way.

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