Finding Every Tool a Department Bought Without IT, Then Deciding What to Do About It
A department buys a scheduling tool on a procurement card because the request to IT would take a semester, and eighteen months later three other departments have solved the same problem with three different tools. Kissflow finds these tools and decides sanction, consolidate, or retire.
Trusted by energy operators worldwide
The tools departments bought on their own don't disappear if IT doesn't look for them
A procurement card purchase turns into a department's system of record faster than anyone in IT notices, and by the time it surfaces, it usually has real data, real users, and real switching cost already attached to it, which makes the eventual conversation harder than if anyone had known eighteen months earlier. The problem isn't that departments go around IT out of malice; it's that the sanctioned request process is often slower than the department's actual deadline, so a card purchase feels like the only option. Kissflow gives IT a standing intake for self-reported and detected shadow tools, a structured way to assess each one for data risk and overlap with what's already sanctioned, and a governance step that turns an assessment into an actual decision: sanction it, consolidate it into something that already exists, or retire it, tracked through to whichever outcome gets chosen. This app starts from tools IT doesn't yet know exist, which is the specific gap the already-sanctioned-but-fragmented cases handled elsewhere don't cover.
Without a discovery process, shadow tools surface by accident, usually too late
Discovery is accidental
A shadow tool surfaces during a security review or a budget audit, years after it became load-bearing for a department.
Assessment is informal
Whoever finds the tool decides on the spot whether it's a problem, without a consistent way to weigh the risk.
Overlap goes unnoticed
Two departments independently adopt tools that do the same job, and nobody connects the two until both have users.
Decisions are made ad hoc
Sanction, consolidate, or retire gets decided informally, inconsistently, department by department.
Built to run the whole process, not just record it
Every capability this app needs, in one place.
Shadow tool discovery
A standing intake for self-reported and IT-detected tools acquired outside the sanctioned request process.
Risk and overlap assessment
Assesses each discovered tool against data sensitivity and its functional overlap with already-sanctioned tools.
Consolidation scoring
Scores whether the right outcome is to sanction the tool, consolidate it into an existing one, or retire it.
Decision approval
A governance reviewer approves the recommended action before it is allowed to move into actual execution.
Rationalization roadmap
Shows every discovered tool and its decision status in one place, instead of scattered notes and emails.
Outcome tracking
Tracks whether the decision that was made, sanction, consolidate, or retire, was actually carried out and closed.
From request to system of record in four steps
Report
A department self-reports, or IT detects, a tool acquired outside the sanctioned process.
Assess
The tool is assessed against data sensitivity and against what's already sanctioned.
Resolve
A decision, sanction, consolidate, or retire, is recommended and approved by a governance reviewer.
Record
The decision is tracked through to completion, including any user or data migration involved.
What changes when this runs on Kissflow
| Process | Before Kissflow | On Kissflow |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Found by accident, in a security review | A standing intake for self-reported and detected tools |
| Assessment | Informal, whoever looks at it | Structured risk and overlap scoring |
| Overlap | Found after both tools have users | Visible during assessment, before either grows further |
| Decision | Made ad hoc, inconsistently | Recommended by criteria, approved by a governance reviewer |
| Roadmap | Doesn't exist | Every discovered tool visible with its decision status |
| Outcome | Assumed complete once decided | Tracked through to actual completion |
Connects to procurement and identity systems to help surface unsanctioned tools
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Built to find shadow IT deliberately, not stumble onto it
A real discovery intake, not a security audit
Departments can self-report; IT isn't the only source of discovery.
Overlap caught by scoring, not by accident
Assessment criteria are consistent across every discovered tool.
A recorded decision, not a hallway call
Every sanction, consolidate, or retire decision has an approver and a reason.
One roadmap for every discovered tool
Status is visible without asking whoever found it.
Decisions tracked to completion
A decision to consolidate or retire is tracked, not assumed done.
Configured, not a platform migration project
Discovery and assessment run in the visual builder.
Related apps
Platform Standardization & Consolidation
For sanctioned-but-fragmented tools that need standardizing, rather than unsanctioned tools that need discovering.
Platform Consolidation & Migration Workflow
The execution workflow for the actual migration once a consolidation decision is made here.
App Orchestration & Governance Dashboard
Where a newly sanctioned shadow tool gets registered and tracked going forward.
We help IT find what departments bought on their own and decide what to do about it
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Vagesh Dave
GVP & CIO at McDermott International, Ltd
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“Advanced automation of all processes is easy to set up. I cannot imagine how to manage workflows without this software.”
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Global Head - Digitalization & Business Improvement
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Maria Theresa Cabigon
CIO, SN Aboitiz Power Group
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See what Kissflow can do for you
Talk to usGot questions? We're here to help.
Get SupportThis app starts from tools IT does not yet know exist. Platform Standardization & Consolidation starts from tools that are already sanctioned but fragmented across departments, and standardizes them onto one.
That app is the execution workflow, the actual data and user migration, once a consolidation decision has been made here or elsewhere.
Any application or SaaS subscription in active use that was acquired outside the sanctioned IT procurement process, whether or not it's causing a problem yet.
No. Every discovered tool goes through assessment first; sanctioning it is one of three possible outcomes, alongside consolidation and retirement.
Yes. Process owners configure the intake, rules, and approval routing in the visual builder, and the AI Builder can generate a working app from a plain-language description.
Through APIs and integration connectors, under single sign-on and role-based access, with every action written to an audit log.
Configuration and AI generation move delivery from weeks to days, without a multi-year platform program or an engineering backlog.
Kissflow is certified to SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO/IEC 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA, hosted on Google Cloud with data residency in the US, EU, APAC, and Oceania.
