Why Shadow IT Happens (and Why It’s Not Always Bad)

For years, "shadow IT" has been treated like a four-letter word. Ask most IT leaders, and you'll hear the usual concerns: security gaps, compliance risks, duplicate costs, and loss of control.

They’re not wrong to worry.

But here’s what often gets missed: shadow IT exists because people are trying to get work done, and because the expensive BPM platforms and enterprise tools IT invested in can't actually deliver on their promises.

Instead of asking "How do we shut it down?" leading IT teams are asking "What is it trying to tell us?" And often, the answer is: "Your BPM platform is too rigid, too slow, and too disconnected from how we actually work.

Let’s unpack why shadow IT happens, why it’s not always the enemy, and how smart IT teams are using it to improve how the business works.

What Shadow IT Really Looks Like

In most organizations, shadow IT isn't a grand conspiracy. It's dozens of local, practical decisions made in the name of speed. A sales team uses an external project tool because the official BPM workflow can't flex to their agile cycle. A finance group spins up a personal file share because the enterprise workflow platform is too locked down for collaboration. An engineer automates data pulls with their own Python script to bypass a clunky reporting tool that should have been integrated into the BPM platform but never was.

These aren’t acts of rebellion; they’re acts of adaptation. Shadow IT fills the gaps between central governance and real-world need. And in most large organizations, those gaps are wide.

You’ve probably seen shadow IT show up as:

• Ad hoc SaaS subscriptions procured by business teams
• Automation scripts built by engineers outside official dev channels
• Workarounds for BPM workflows that can't handle exceptions
• Shadow databases or spreadsheets holding critical operational data
• Email-based approvals because the BPM platform's routing is too rigid
• Use of personal cloud storage or messaging apps for work collaboration

What all these have in common is simple: people solving problems when official channels — including expensive BPM platforms — are too slow, too rigid, or too invisible.

Why Shadow IT Happens

Shadow IT emerges when the official path cannot deliver. When a business unit asks for help (maybe for a custom dashboard or integration), the answer from IT is often "We'll get to it"… eventually. Or worse: "Our BPM platform can't do that without professional services." Between core system upgrades, backlog tickets, security patching, compliance audits, and managing rigid BPM workflows that break under organizational complexity, IT capacity is stretched thin. Meanwhile, the business cannot wait.

As a result, teams look for immediate tools to meet immediate needs. And in today’s world, those tools are just a credit card and a web login away.

The drivers behind shadow IT often include:

• Official BPM platforms and enterprise tools that do not meet evolving business needs
• IT processes that are too slow, formal, or capacity-constrained
• BPM workflows too rigid to handle exceptions, requiring manual workarounds
• Pressure on business units to deliver faster, leaner, or more digitally
• Per-user licensing that makes IT gatekeep access to official tools
• Disconnect between centralized IT and practical realities at the edge
• BPM platforms that require consultants for every workflow modification

This is not about bad actors or impatient teams. It is about a mismatch between governance and agility—often created by BPM platforms that prioritize process perfection over organizational reality. And that is something worth paying attention to.

Why It’s Not Always a Problem

Here’s the shift forward-looking IT leaders are making: they don’t see shadow IT purely as a risk ... they see it as a signal.

Shadow IT can reveal:

• Unmet needs where official solutions are lagging
• BPM platform limitations that IT didn't realize were blocking adoption
• Frustrations or friction points inside existing processes
• Innovation happening at the edge of the organization
• Potential pilots for future enterprise tools
• Evidence that rigid BPM workflows can't adapt to how work actually happens

Some of today's most powerful enterprise platforms started as shadow IT experiments. And ironically, many shadow IT solutions emerge precisely because BPM platforms failed to deliver the orchestration and flexibility they promised. Trying to stamp it out completely misses the opportunity to learn, adapt, and improve.

By approaching shadow IT as a learning opportunity, smart IT teams can:

• Assess where shadow tools are creating value versus risk
• Formalize or integrate the best of what is already working
• Recognize when BPM platform rigidity is driving workarounds
• Partner with business units to meet evolving needs more proactively
• Consider orchestration platforms that wrap existing tools instead of forcing replacement
• Shift IT’s role from pure control to orchestration and enablement

When shadow IT is approached with curiosity and governance (not just fear), it becomes a bridge between central control and local innovation. This is the essence of BPM Reimagined: recognizing that orchestration beats replacement, that flexibility beats rigidity, and that platforms should adapt to how people work—not force people to adapt to vendor-imposed processes.

The organizations seeing the most success aren't trying to eliminate shadow IT or force everything into rigid BPM workflows. They're building orchestration layers that give business teams the flexibility they need while maintaining the governance IT requires. They're choosing platforms that can wrap and coordinate existing tools rather than demanding wholesale replacement.

Shadow IT isn't always the problem. Sometimes, it's the solution trying to emerge—showing you exactly where your BPM platform is failing to deliver on its promises.