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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.
Shadow information technology systems (SITS) coexist with formal enterprise systems in organisations. SITS pose risks but also increase flexibility of business units. Practice shows that SITS emerge, despite that Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) aims at controling all IT systems in an organization. Studies acknowledge this problem in general. However, they neither show the specific influencing areas of SITS nor provide approaches to address them. To close this gap, we use a literature review to analyse examples of practical SITS and their interference with EAM concerns. Thus, we find that they hinder especially transparency, reduction of EA complexity and governance. Research has focused on achieving transparency, governing the evolution of the EA but lacks strategies for reducing complexity. This study contributes to research and practice by uncovering the main influencing areas of SITS on EAM, as well as by laying a foundation for future research on this topic.