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Corporate IT departments are drowning in the deluge of SaaS app requests, according to a report from BetterCloud.

The data, the first in a two part set, reveals how IT departments are “overworked and overwhelmed”, and a simple lack of time is prohibiting further cloud software being integrated into companies. Almost three quarters (73%) of IT pros surveyed feel guilt over this, saying they believe their end users lack SaaS apps that would increase productivity. In contrast, 45% of end users say the same. The number of cloud app deployments has gone up by half over the past year, with IT departments supporting on average 12 apps as of March.

The natural progression of this is that users, frustrated by IT’s lack of time, bring their own applications into the organisation without approval. When asked, only a quarter (26%) said they did ask IT for approval, 44% said no, while 30% said sometimes.

Cloud storage and collaboration appears to be the biggest sticking point as far as IT is concerned, with more than 40% of respondents saying those apps are the most difficult to secure and manage. It is a similar story with users; 29% say their storage and collaboration apps are in the biggest need of an upgrade, while other votes arrived for messaging (18%), project management (17%), human resources (14%) and ticketing (14%).

One of the more curious points of the research – which again shows the disparity between IT and end users for cloud apps – showed that while end users believe they take three months to become ‘proficient’ at SaaS applications, IT believes it should be nearer six months. BetterCloud content marketing manager Scott Solomon explains: “IT professionals should understand just how long it takes before end users consider themselves proficient.

“It’s not a stretch to think that offering continuous training sessions or materials could cut an end user’s time to proficiency in half,” he adds. “If end users feel proficient faster, IT will get fewer support requests and organisations will see an ROI more quickly.”

You can read the report findings here.