Dive Brief:

• In the workplace, more than nine apps are used by employees and at any given time workers have between five and nine apps open, according to a survey of more than 800 knowledge workers by harmon.ie.
• Respondents said 48% of the apps they use are not provided by IT, including applications like Dropbox, Google Docs and WhatsApp. Currently, 61% of enterprise IT departments have a cloud governance policy to aid in shadow IT regulation.
• The crush of apps in the enterprise can take a toll on users, with 43% of users saying they have to navigate between too many apps to accomplish basic tasks. A majority of workers, 67%, believe a single portal of apps would increase productivity and focus.

Dive Insight:

The app market is already overcrowded and is expected to grow to $6.3 trillion by 2021 compared to $1.3 trillion worth in 2016, according to the report. 

Apps for the enterprise are meant to ease the digital transformation process but some require more time to monitor or train employees. Apps can pose a unique challenge for the enterprise as they serve as both a proprietor of convenience and a threat to data security.

Shadow IT and mobile apps often disregard IT departments entirely. Some apps may be harmless, but inviting more apps on a platform can raise cause for concern. Last year, a tech team within federal government received permission to integrate the communication platform Slack into their workplace apps. However, the team then connected Slack with Google Drive, leaving more than 100 Google Drives open and susceptible to a potential data breach.

Companies must adopt to the changing landscape of security in IT and the way in which employees work. Rogue app users are inevitable in the company workspace and accommodating those needs is a new and hastening IT project. Of the survey’s respondents, 48% said while they use apps for daily workloads, they sometimes "make information too disjointed." Creating a centralized app platform could ease both employee app use and security monitoring.