Open Access

Melanie Huber, Stephan Zimmermann, Christopher Rentrop, Carsten Felden

• Organizations deploy a plethora of information technology (IT) systems. Various types of enterprise systems (ES) may coexist with the shadow IT systems (SITS) implemented by individual business units without the involvement of the IT department. The associated redundancy of SITS and ES suggests their integration. After integration, however, organization may find it challenging to retain the flexibility and innovation that the development of SITS offers the business. In this study, we conduct a literature review on IT systems integration. This review and the specific characteristics of SITS then serve to define SITS integration, derive guidelines for the integration decision, the phases preceding and following integration, and the integration process itself. SITS and ES integration can profit from existing knowledge of integration benefits, costs, and of the available technologies. Our study offers IT decision makers an insight into the specifics of SITS integration, and provides a basis for future SITS research.