Okta found out that companies use in average 88 apps, and that this number is increasing 6% per year. That's not even taking into account Apps that IT are not even aware are being used. Because, as you can imagine or maybe you have experienced, there's always a Joe somewhere subscribing to a Saas without going through the company's process for bringing in new vendors. This happens so often there is now a name for it: Shadow IT (scary right?).
An important task of a company is to create alignment between employees. With the rapid increase in the number of apps companies use, it can be difficult to use common process with people using different apps that have different philosophy. It can be harder now to onboard new people if you are unable to give them all the keys to do their work as efficiently as older employees.
But knowing that your team is using a certain app is not enough. Not all companies use Zendesk for the same reasons for example. In some companies this is only for the support team, in others in can be the source of truth of the product information.
Goals of an app catalog
Having an app catalog has several benefits:
- IT is able to have a more complete picture of all apps being used. Detect possible security questions, check that SSO is used everywhere ...
- Finance can know better what the company pays, for what.
- Operational teams have a complete picture of the apps they have access to, how to use them, and who is the owner.
- HR can make onboarding more complete, and closed to real work. And also make offboarding simpler.
Overall that is benefiting everyone, creates alignment and help people be more efficient in their job.
How to create an app catalog
The information you want to have for each app is:
- Who is the owner of the app. The person or team that has the control to add new uses or administrate the app
- How to access the app. This is usually an URL but can also be local program to start
- What the app is used for and how to use it. Very helpful for people who are new or to create alignment on how the app should be used. Ideally you should describe all the use case that can be done with this app.
- What teams have access to this app. Most apps are used by a single or a few teams. For example Figma is only being used by Designer, Product managers and front end developers but not by sales people
You can start easily and input this information in an Excel sheet, or a Notion table or a basic blank page that anyone know how to find. That can be start, but you will quickly need a something more serious. Usually intranet offers some of these features but if you are looking for a complete approach contact us .