What It Is & What To Do About It
As enterprises accelerate digital transformation, departments often adopt their own tools and services to stay agile. While this fosters innovation, it also invites shadow IT—unauthorized or unmanaged applications and services operating outside IT’s oversight.
The result? Surging IT costs, duplicated tools, compliance risks, and a lack of visibility into where your technology budget is really going.
If you’re not actively managing shadow IT, you’re losing both money and control. That’s where Technology Business Management (TBM) comes in—offering the framework and insights needed to shine a light on hidden IT spend.
What Is Shadow IT (and Why It’s Costing You)?
Shadow IT refers to technology used within an organization without formal approval from the IT department. Think cloud services, SaaS subscriptions, storage solutions, and even security tools independently adopted by teams.
These tools often:
- Bypass centralized IT budgeting
- Duplicate existing systems
- Increase security and compliance risks
- Lead to inefficiencies and uncontrolled spending
Most critically—they’re rarely accounted for in your official IT budget.
The Hidden Financial Impact of Shadow IT
Industry research suggests that shadow IT can represent 30–40% of total IT spend. When spending goes untracked, it disrupts financial strategies, inflates budgets, and obscures true ROI.
Without visibility, aligning IT investments with business outcomes—a core principle of TBM—becomes nearly impossible.
How TBM Helps You Regain Control Over Shadow IT
Technology Business Management (TBM) is designed to bring financial transparency and governance to modern IT environments. Here’s how applying TBM principles can help manage shadow IT:
1. Achieve Full IT Spend Visibility
TBM frameworks provide a holistic view of technology spending across departments, uncovering hidden costs, redundant tools, and unmanaged services—whether cloud, SaaS, or on-premises.
2. Automate Cost Tracking and Allocation
With TBM practices, organizations can map expenditures to business units, making it easier to attribute shadow IT costs and implement cost allocation, showback, or chargeback models.
3. Eliminate Redundancies
TBM helps identify overlapping tools—like multiple CRMs or collaboration platforms—empowering smarter decisions around consolidation and freeing budget for strategic initiatives.
4. Enable Governance Without Hindering Innovation
Rather than restricting teams, TBM promotes light-touch governance, allowing IT and finance to guide technology usage while supporting agility and innovation.
Take Control Before Shadow IT Takes Over
The longer shadow IT operates unchecked, the more it erodes financial performance and operational agility. By embracing TBM, organizations can:
- Monitor all technology spend—not just IT-sanctioned purchases
- Prevent budget overruns and eliminate waste
- Improve cloud cost management and forecasting
- Encourage responsible innovation while maintaining control
Looking for the Right TBM Tool to Stop Shadow IT From Draining Your Resources?
EZTBM® by ITBMO is purpose-built to turn TBM principles into action—giving your organization complete visibility, intelligent cost tracking, and governance without slowing teams down.
✔ Ready to bring shadow IT into the light?
Schedule a personalized demo and discover how EZTBM® can help you take control of IT costs and drive smarter financial decisions.
