When your IT stack works against you

You invested in a powerful CRM, a collaboration platform, a project management tool, a modernised ERP — and yet your teams still exchange emails, maintain parallel Excel files and work around the processes put in place. This paradox, sometimes called “reverse shadow IT”, is one of the most costly symptoms of poorly managed digital transformation.

Companies use on average only 58% of the features in the tools they have purchased. For companies in the midst of digital acceleration, this translates directly into thousands of euros in dormant licences and productivity that stagnates despite investment.

The accumulation trap

IT stack growth typically follows an additive logic: every time a need is identified, a new tool is added. One department requests a ticketing solution, another wants a dedicated video conferencing tool, marketing adopts a new automation platform… The result: a fragmented application landscape that is difficult to maintain and even harder to drive adoption on.

Several factors amplify this phenomenon:

• The explosion of SaaS offerings: thousands of solutions are now accessible without IT validation, encouraging uncoordinated local initiatives.
• The pressure to innovate: management teams feel compelled to “keep up” digitally, even at the cost of running experiments with no clear assessment criteria.
• The absence of application governance: without a clear map of the application portfolio, it is impossible to identify redundancies or underutilisation.

Having a Tool Is Not the Same as Using It

The fundamental mistake is confusing deployment with adoption. A tool made available is not a tool being used. Between an initial training that is often too brief, insufficient ongoing support and the natural human resistance to change, real adoption rates are almost always lower than initial projections.

In mid-market companies, this issue is amplified by the versatility expected of employees: stretched across many responsibilities, they tend to favour tools they already know — even imperfect ones — rather than investing time in learning a new solution.

For example: A company deploys Microsoft Teams to replace internal emails. Six months later, field teams are still using SMS and WhatsApp to coordinate operations. The tool exists. The usage does not.

Towards a “Value of Use” approach

Regaining control of your IT stack requires a paradigm shift: moving from an acquisition mindset to a value-of-use mindset. In practice, this means:

1. Audit what you already have Map all solutions currently in place, measure their actual usage rates, and identify functional redundancies. This step often uncovers licences being paid for tools that have been abandoned.

2. Rationalise the application portfolio Based on the audit, define a target toolset by business use case. The goal is not necessarily to reduce the number of tools, but to eliminate duplicates and focus adoption efforts on strategic solutions.

3. Manage adoption as a project in its own right Adoption cannot be mandated. It must be managed — with KPIs, internal champions (digital ambassadors), contextualised training programmes and sustained support over time.

4. Measure value created, not just usage A tool can be used without creating value. The most relevant indicators measure business impact: time savings, error reduction, improved cross-team collaboration.

What Lùkla observes with its Clients

At Lùkla, we regularly support companies facing exactly this situation. The diagnosis is often the same: an application portfolio that has grown layer by layer, without an overarching vision, and teams navigating between poorly integrated tools.

Our Change & Adopt offer is specifically designed to address this challenge: starting from what already exists, identifying what truly creates value, and building an adoption plan grounded in the real working conditions of your teams.

Conclusion

The proliferation of tools is not inherently a problem — the absence of a usage strategy is. Before investing in the next solution, the real question to ask is: have we truly unlocked the potential of what we already have?