What drives employees to shadow IT?

While 94 percent of knowledge workers recognize the importance of collaboration and 83 percent use technology to collaborate, 59 percent are not satisfied with the tools they are given in their workplace.

This is particularly true among millennials and is causing them to knowingly turn to unapproved consumer-grade tools with little concern about the security risks involved, according to Alfresco Software.

This dissatisfaction with workplace collaboration tools is especially prevalent among millennials.

• Seventy-one percent of millennials face challenges with company-issued collaboration tools, compared with 45 percent of baby boomers.
• Forty-seven percent of millennials prefer chat and text tools for collaboration, while 36 percent of baby boomers find these least effective.
• Forty-seven percent of millennials favor online meetings to in-person, while only 26 percent of baby boomers would prefer online to in-person meetings.

As a result, workers are turning in large numbers to consumer-grade tools to collaborate, even with people outside of their organizations, and with tools they know are not sanctioned by their workplace. This presents serious security issues to organizations, even though most workers are not concerned.

• Fifty-one percent of knowledge workers use personal email for work.
• Fifty-one percent use public document sharing for collaboration.
• Only 38 percent always think of the security implications when collaborating.