IT professionals are guilty of massively underestimating the number of apps introduced by employees into their workplaces, according to a new study.
CIOs believed that each worker introduced 3.2 apps each on average, according to the study sponsored by LogMeIn, a remote access management firm.
However, the real number is closer to 21, claimed the company, after culling data from similar sized organisations using app discovery tools – a number 6.5 times bigger than IT’s estimates.
In the poll of 1,390 IT and non-IT pros, two-thirds of UK and Ireland respondents said BYOA existed in their organisations, compared to an average of 70% of respondents from Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Sean Ford, CMO of LogMeIn, said: "The rapid rise of cloud offerings – along with the consumerisation of IT – is forcing major changes to the way IT operates, and calling into question IT’s overall relevance.
"IT is increasingly outside of the loop when it comes to app selection and worse, the way data is stored and shared across these apps."
He called for IT’s role to be redefined to change the way they manage apps after the report revealed that 29% of respondents admitted to failing to monitor or manage BYOA within their firms.
Though while 47% of those surveyed said they lack a strategy to handle BYOA, 71% planned to have policies in place over the next two years.
The news comes after business collaboration firm Quip revealed its business customers had all adopted the tool after employees introduced it into the workplace, having initially downloaded it for free.
