5 Ways Solution Providers Can Deal With Shadow IT

The Impact Of Shadow IT

Shadow IT appears to be casting an increasingly larger pall over the corporate IT organizations that bear the primary responsibility for keeping the technology up and running.

Even as recently as last fall, nine of every 10 chief information officers around the world found themselves bypassed at least sometimes by line-of-business units in IT investment decisions, according to the results of a survey by solution provider Logicalis – No. 30 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list.

The annual survey, which Logicalis launched in 2013, found that 66 percent of CIOs in the U.S. – about two-thirds – indicated last year that they influence more than half of IT spending decisions. But that’s down slightly from 68 percent in 2014.

Still, line-of-business units hold much spending sway today. “Shadow IT is now directly impacting all corporate functions,” said Chris Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based solution provider Untangled Solutions.

Here are five things solution providers should do to deal with shadow IT.