A recent Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) study revealed that 44% of organizations have deployed six to 10 communications and collaboration platforms, while another 37% use between 11 and 20 platforms.
The proliferation of collaboration solutions in enterprises that serve similar or overlapping purposes is known as collaboration app sprawl. Today, collaboration app sprawl is a real problem in companies across sectors. While these tools are vital to supporting and connecting distributed teams, redundant collaboration tools are very risky business, introducing increased operational, security and compliance risk in organizations.
To tackle collaboration sprawl and mitigate these risks, organizations need NetSfere’s secure enterprise-grade mobile messaging platform.
Operational risk
Using too many messaging and collaboration tools is a productivity killer in organizations. Toggling between apps disrupts employee workflows and results in “tool overload”. This tool overload is often overwhelming and confusing for employees, hindering collaboration and negatively impacting the employee experience.
Employees want companies to reduce complexity and rein in tool sprawl. According to a Gartner survey, 66% of respondents agreed that better business outcomes could be achieved if IT provided universally accepted and supported applications and devices to get work done.
Security risk
Each collaboration tool that is added to an organization’s tech stack increases the attack surface, introducing vulnerabilities that cyber criminals are working overtime to exploit.
Vulnerabilities in many of the consumer-grade messaging apps and unsecure collaboration tools that are fueling app sprawl in enterprises today are well known to bad actors. Findings from a Check Point Research report show that cyberattack numbers increased 38% in 2022 compared to 2021, driven up “by smaller, more agile hacker and ransomware gangs who widened their aim to target business collaboration tools”.
The expanded attack surface coupled with the reduced visibility and control associated with tool sprawl increases the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information that can result in significant financial and reputational damage to enterprises.
Compliance risk
Compliance with evolving regulatory requirements and data privacy laws is complicated enough today without the added compliance complexity and risk introduced by collaboration tool sprawl. As employees exchange data and information across multiple messaging and collaboration solutions, the risk of compliance violations and legal consequences grows.
Compliance violations are a huge business risk today as regulatory agencies step up cybersecurity enforcement and fines continue to rise. Consider that last year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 16 financial firms a collective $1.8 billion for the misuse of messaging apps. The fines for using unsecure communications channels now exceed $2.5 billion.
Mitigate risk with NetSfere’s secure all-in-one mobile messaging platform
To mitigate the many risks of collaboration tool sprawl, organizations need to take back control of their business communication with NetSfere’s enterprise-grade, secure all-in-one mobile messaging platform.
The fact is enterprises today don’t need a hodgepodge of risk-inducing communication apps to support communication and collaboration. A unified platform that enables business communication across text, voice, and video channels, NetSfere provides employees with a convenient and frictionless way to share ideas, files, and data without compromising productivity, security, or compliance. When employees have the secure tools they need to optimize their work experience, productivity increases and cyber and compliance risk decrease.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the bottom line when it comes to business communication tools is, less is definitely more. NetSfere is the mobile messaging platform that provides more productivity, more security, more compliance, and more peace of mind.
Contact us today to find out how NetSfere can help your enterprise eliminate collaboration app sprawl, mitigate risk, and take back control of your business communication.