The Rise of the Shadows

Is your company a Shadow Company?  It probably should be.

Dan Woods at Forbes.com started a column called JargonSpy where his inaugural article, "Serious Shadow Games", tackles the concept of "Shadow IT," a term that has increasingly been used to describe the way that people in companies have started bypassing the information technology department and creating technology solutions for themselves."

Central Desktop is on Dan's list of "Shadow IT Products" that are permeating corporations around the world.

We circulated the article around the office (via Central Desktop of course) and it got us talking quite a bit about the topic.  The conspiracy buffs in our company loved the idea of being part of a Shadow Company.  Afterall, if they can't be part of the Shadow Government - being part of a Shadow Company is the next best thing.

When we founded Central Desktop - we had several core tenants that we wanted to build the company/product around.  "Shadow-ability" wasn't one of them, but other words like "expensable", "easy-to-use" "quick-to-deploy" "easy-to-upgrade" were central to how we built the product; all with the intention of "coming in under the radar." (in fact, we used that quite often in our initial Powerpoint presentations).

Coming in "under the radar" was how we described our product as "shadow-like."  In fact, we wrote a blog post in December of 2005 titled, "To Bypass the IT Department or Not?" addressing this very topic.

Over the past three years we have seen and assisted thousands of teams around the world - most of the time without their IT departments knowledge.  Very often a business user is in such deep "project hell" that they don't have time to wait for their IT department to help them. Instead, they find quick-to-deploy tools like Central Desktop to help them along.

And while we continue to support thousands of teams in spite of their IT departments - we must give credit where credit is due.  The truth is that all of our large deployments were done in close cooperation with the IT department - and I believe that this will always be the case.

Its impossible to role out 1,000 users of any type of software and still 'come in under the radar.'  Instead, what usually happens is our large deployments began as a small business team or a department within a large company.  This small business team was the seed that grew into a fruit producing tree.  Many times that initial team began in the IT department - but not always.  Inevitably when adoption levels approach the 50 user mark the IT department usually gets involved.

They'll ask about security, data ownership, up-time, etc and we almost always get the greenlight.  For the few times that an issue arose - we responded with more stringent security features and services to the point where we've created one of the most (if not the most) secure, Web 2.0 collaboration platform on the market.

Earlier this year, in response to the growing number of midsized and larger companies that are using our product, we released a Security Pack Add-on to specifically address the concerns of the IT department. The Security Pack empowers the IT department with the tools they want to feel safe and secure and in compliance (HIPAA Compliance for example).

In addition to the security measures that we already take with our entire platform, we provide them with Enhanced Password Protection, TLS Email Encryption Compliance, Access Control at the IP level, Enhanced Privacy Policies and Terms of Service tools and Secure Single-Sign-On services to third party apps.

Our point is that while we are proud to be a Shadow Company the reality is that this is only true for a short while in the typical lifecycle of our customers.

Cozying up to the IT department often works in everyone's favor (the customer, the IT department, the company and Central Desktop) ensuring compliance, security, affordability and future growth.

So, while we, and many other apps, continue to operate "in the Shadows"; it's important to realize that such is the history of emerging technology.

Recall that Salesforce.com breached corporate America by winning over the "rogue sales reps" who needed an alternative to the legacy SFA or CRM solution that was put in place for them.  Instead, these rogues paid the $59/month cost themselves and expensed it or absorbed it - knowing that the results will speak for themselves.  Eventually, the single instance of Salesforce.com would expand to multiple reps, then the department and eventually into Support and Operations.  In many cases, a single subscription of Salesforce.com grew into a multi-thousand deployment. In most cases, this was win-win for both the client and for Salesforce.com.  Its a low-risk way for the client to try, and then buy the application based on its performance.  For Salesforce.com, the single subscription was its foot into the door of an account that they might not have ever landed by coming in the front door.

So instead of fighting or resisting, it might be wise to search around your company to see who or what might be lurking in the Shadows.  It could be the next Salesforce.com.