Lessons About Shadow IT, Direct from the North Pole

Shadow IT is a big problem, no matter where it’s being used—even at the most famous toy manufacturer in history’s facility. Consider this a case study of why it is essential to listen to your IT department, especially when it comes to the tools they provide.

For once, Jangle felt at peace… at least, relative to this time of year.

The co-manager of the North Pole’s IT department scanned his array of monitors, seeking out the metrics coming in from the various departments that were all hard at work preparing for the big man’s annual ride around the world. Skimming the list, his smile grew with every statistic he saw.

Toy Assembly’s systems were all running fine. It seemed that the last time he had spoken to Woody about using the tablets that IT provided instead of keeping track of inventory on a spare plank had finally gotten the message across.

Coal Acquisition hadn’t had a hardware issue in some time, either… a Christmas miracle in its own right, considering how dusty that department inherently was. Fortunately, the foreman elf Smudge and his team were making liberal use of the canned air regularly delivered to them to keep their computers as clean as possible.

The Garage was doing a good job of requesting updates, rather than trying to implement them themselves. Jangle smiled, remembering how Torque used to simply add another booster to the sleigh whenever one had optimizations to install.

Satisfied, Jangle pushed himself back from his workstation and, picking up his mug, started off toward the cocoa bar. On his way, he stopped at his partner’s desk and collected the four or so empty mugs she had accumulated so far. Ginger nodded to him in silent thanks, barely taking her eyes from the screen. As he did so, he noticed her brows furrow behind the thick, festive glasses she wore.

Uh oh. If he knew Ginger, that furrow was a sign of a big, big problem.

He swiftly refilled all the mugs. He wasn’t ashamed to have a pretty lavish cocoa order—chocolate ganache melted into half-and-half, with a pinch of sea salt added, all topped with a cinnamon and nutmeg-infused whipped cream. Ginger, on the other hand… 98% pure dark chocolate, brewed directly in simple syrup.

Jangle added an extra-fluffy marshmallow to one of Ginger’s cups. It was his code that he didn’t want to interrupt her directly, but he was there if she had a conundrum she wanted to work through with him. She didn’t usually, but Jangle liked to let her know, regardless.

He delivered the cups to Ginger’s desk and started to return to his own. Two steps in, he heard a familiar slurp, followed by Ginger’s concerned voice.

“Hey, have you ever heard of ‘Knot-Today?’”

Jangle turned, looking back at his co-manager.

“Maybe… actually, yeah. It was a utility that helped organize ribbon supplies based on which toys needed wrapping. Man, it’s been decades since I’ve heard that name. Why do you mention it?”

Ginger grimaced, her glasses fogged up from her beverage.

“Is that something that would still be in use?”

Jangle shook his head.

“No, not for years. The devs fell behind on patching it, and it wound up leaking data. A lot of kids could have found out what to expect when they woke up if we kept using it. Why do you ask?” Jangle took another sip of his cocoa concoction.

Ginger sighed. “Half of the computers in Ribbons and Bows have it installed, and according to the usage data, it seems to be all they’re using over there.”

“Wha-ack-at?” Jangle choked on his steaming beverage for a moment. Coughing, he strode over to see what Ginger could see. She leaned back to give him room.

There it was. Ginger’s screen showed the ancient software present on a dozen or so workstations in the Ribbons and Bows departments. Jangle shook his head in frustration. Things were going so well, too.

Feeling a headache coming on, Jangle strode back to his desk. “I’m calling Tinsel. He’ll be able to get to the bottom of this.”

Tinsel picked up on the second ring. “Hello? Ribbons and Bows, Tinsel here.”

“Tinsel, hi, this is Jangle, over in IT. We noticed something that I wanted to ask you about. Are you familiar with Knot-Today?”

“Oh, is that the old supply management tool for ribbons? I remember using that back in the day. Why?”

“Well, Ginger just found it on some of your team’s computers, and the logs show you guys aren’t using Fit2B, that platform we installed for you.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Jangle heard Tinsel cough and shuffle some things on his desk. “Yeah, some of the team down here were having a hard time getting used to it, so I figured I’d let them go back to what they were comfortable with. Knot-Today may be a wee bit older, but it still does a good enough job of keeping the team on track.”

Jangle looked up, seeing Ginger listening in on the conversation and wordlessly shaking her head. He nodded to her in agreement before returning his attention to the call.

“Yeah, I understand that, Tinsel, but Knot-Today hasn’t been updated in a decade. Didn’t someone on our team tell you it was reaching end-of-life when we implemented Fit2B?”

Jangle and Ginger heard a long slurp of cocoa, then Tinsel’s voice again.

“Well, sure, but it works just fine. We didn’t need any new features, so why worry ourselves with learning a whole new system?”

Ginger slapped her hand on her desk in exasperation. Seeing this, Jangle gestured for her to take the reins. Only too happy to oblige, Ginger spoke up.

“Hi, Tinsel,” Ginger interjected. “I understand that sticking to the old software may seem like the better option, but there are a lot of reasons that’s not the case. One of the main reasons we migrated away from Knot-Today was that it wasn’t supported anymore, which we knew was a problem because it wouldn't receive any security updates. One of the things we appreciated the most about Fit2B is that it’s really well protected, and the development team is committed to maintaining this level of security moving forward.”

“But Fit2B has all this extra stuff that we just don’t need.”

Ginger nodded patiently. “That’s true, but it also has a lot of features that could directly help you guys accomplish more, and by working with Horne & Benik, we’re able to get a good deal… and again, the security concerns alone are enough to make Fit2Be a better choice.”

Jangle, still on the line, heard Tinsel grumble.

“Tell you what,” Ginger continued. “We’ll send Pixel and Delbert over to you guys every so often to help teach your department how to make the best use of Fit2Be. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised as to how much you can accomplish with it.”

“And,” added Jangle, “I want to apologize for something going live without your team being fully briefed on it and properly trained. We’ll do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

On the other end of the line, Tinsel hemmed and hawed. Finally, he replied.

“Okay, that sounds fair. I appreciate that.”

Jangle sighed in relief, making sure his mic was muted. Once the call was ended, he turned to Ginger.

“I think we should reach out to Horne & Benik and see if they have any educational resources we can use.”

“I agree.” Ginger nodded, draining one of her mugs. “I’ll send them a ticket now.”

Jangle nodded, turning back to his workstation to resume his watchful eye over the Pole’s IT.

***

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