What is digital sprawl? Digital sprawl refers to the ever-growing amount of data produced by organizations every day.
And, as organizations generate data at a faster pace, it’s becoming even harder to wrangle all of the new data and information that’s created. Organizations may have data stored in multiple locations, making it hard for employees to access business-critical information and generate accurate insights.
For many organizations, digital sprawl compromises the value of data. Team members have to cross-reference data in multiple formats from different sources, making analytics difficult. Data can become corrupted during this process, rendering analytics worthless.
One of the core problems is that it has become common to have overlapping or disconnected services between departments. Unfortunately, employees have a tendency to stick with the tools or services they’re familiar with, regardless of functionality or cost to their company.
Gartner estimates that 30% of spending on subscription services is wasted. Gartner also predicts that spending on SaaS applications and services will reach $122 billion by next year.
In 2021, organizations worldwide were using an average amount of 110 software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. The average employee uses at least 8 platforms or apps, and companies spend an average of $2,884 in SaaS subscriptions on them.
Here are 3 ways enterprise organizations can manage and contain digital sprawl:
Assess your digital sprawl
It’s hard to get a clear picture of digital sprawl without visibility into all of the SaaS platforms currently in your organization’s portfolio. You also need a complete list of not just how many apps there are, but how much you’re spending on each one and how they’re being used. One way to improve visibility is to audit all SaaS platforms currently in use across your organization. Establish a better understanding of tools by monitoring your network for unknown apps, surveying employees, and partnering with finance to locate expensed app purchases.
Reach out to IT for support
Extend an olive branch to IT so that you can work together to ferret out rogue SaaS purchases and work to monitor new purchases. Encourage your IT team to be accessible and collaborate with one other. Put a process in place so that team members can freely approach IT with new apps they would like to use.
Create a purchasing process
When a department asks for new SaaS tools, IT should have a consistent process to audit the apps for security, compliance, and other needs. Have a process that ensures a timely response to app requests and gives IT a framework for evaluating new purchases. It also makes it easier to compare what apps are already up and running, and you don’t end up with duplicate purchases.
How an enterprise SaaS platform can minimize digital sprawl:
Instantly connect and communicate with employees
As employees continue to work remotely, it’s important that all employees are encouraged to seek out more connections with their coworkers and to their companies. Enterprise leaders should provide opportunities for employees to build and foster connections with one another.
For instance, an enterprise SaaS platform can provide ways for employees to connect and collaborate across the company. C-suite and managers are able to provide company-wide announcements, share critical information, post news articles, blogs, and more. Employees can communicate with each other via live chat, group chat, or 2-way video conferencing.
Make content accessible across all departments
Your content, resources, and communications may be disorganized and siloed in different departments and divisions. An enterprise SaaS platform can give your employees access to the information they need right on their mobile devices. Employees can search within the app and quickly and easily find the content, information, and resources they need at the right time.
Foster increased productivity
Information overload slows productivity and critical thinking. With an enterprise SaaS platform, your employees can receive critical information via a private channel that’s relevant to them. For instance, the sales team would have access to everything that helps them do their jobs, and the marketing channel would have access to their own content.
Consider an enterprise SaaS platform
At CatalystXL, we want to help you quickly and easily share information and foster collaboration across your entire organization. We can deliver a no-code, custom branded enterprise mobile app that unlocks answers and provides insights via our Cardware™ platform — sharing categorized content in a powerful flashcard format. Our mobile platform fosters a community of collaboration, engagement, and connectedness for your employees – both in and out of the office.
Book a demo today.
