Running on Excel and Prayers: Signs You've Built a Shadow IT System

If mission-critical insurance logic lives in unmanaged spreadsheets, you don’t just have an Excel problem—you’ve built a shadow IT system.

And chances are, it happened by accident.

Shadow IT in insurance rarely starts with rebellion. It starts with urgency.

How Shadow IT Actually Forms

Picture this:

Renewal season is in full swing. Rates are changing. Regulations are shifting. And somehow, somewhere, your pricing logic is being maintained in an Excel file with 27 tabs, 42 nested IF statements, and a filename that ends in “_FINAL_v3_updated_THIS_ONE_USE_THIS.xlsx.”

That spreadsheet didn’t start as “shadow IT.”

It started as a workaround.

Welcome to the world of shadow IT — a world that’s less about cutting-edge technology and more about duct tape, ingenuity, and Microsoft Excel.

In most insurers, IT backlogs stretch months—or years—into the future. Business teams can’t wait. So underwriters, product managers, and operations leaders do what smart people always do: they solve the problem themselves.

Excel becomes the tool of choice because it’s:

• Familiar
• Flexible
• Fast to adapt

Over time, that “temporary” spreadsheet grows legs...

The Telltale Signs You're Running Shadow IT

What began as a simple model quietly evolves into something else entirely:

• Data is pulled in via copy-paste, VBA, or fragile automation
• The file behaves like a database—but without safeguards
• Logic sprawls across tabs, macros, and undocumented assumptions
• The original author has moved on
• Only a few “spreadsheet whisperers” understand how it works
• Business-critical decisions depend on files stored on personal machines

At some point, people start talking about the spreadsheet in hushed tones. It becomes “that model”—a totem of both brilliance and fragility.

Congratulations! You are now running a shadow IT system. 

Why Shadow IT Persists (and Why It Hurts)

When Excel starts creaking under its own weight, teams often patch around it:

• Manual patchwork: Export CSVs, manipulate them, and upload them back in. Rinse. Repeat.
• Small DIY tools: Quick scripts, Access databases, macros. Built once and never retained.
• Repurposing unrelated tools: Like using Outlook to track tasks. (We see you, email-to-self people.)

Although these feel productive and clever in the moment, they compound the risk. These short-term fixes will ultimately prolong the issue by papering over the cracks.

Continuing with shadow IT brings serious risks to the business:

• A single broken formula derails pricing
• IT can’t secure or govern what it can’t see
• What worked for 100 quotes collapses at 10,000

Over time, everything slows down. Confidence erodes. And the business becomes fragile in ways that are hard to explain—until something breaks.

What a Shadow-Free Model Looks Like

Eliminating shadow IT doesn’t mean ripping Excel away from business users.

It means treating spreadsheet logic like real software.

In a shadow-free environment, every bit of business logic lives in a central location. Changes are tracked, tested, and deployed like real software (because they are). The spreadsheet interface still exists—but behind it sits a well-governed, scalable engine.

You’ve kept what works. But you’ve made it safe, secure, and sane.

Eliminating shadow IT isn’t about stifling innovation—it’s about supporting it properly. The real-life benefits of a shadow-free world look like:

• Accuracy: Consistent results across teams and systems
• Onboarding: New hires don’t need tribal knowledge to contribute
• Compliance: Clear answers when regulators ask how decisions are made

You keep what works.
You remove what makes it risky.

Moving Out of the Shadows with Coherent

This is exactly where Coherent fits.

Coherent lets teams keep working in Excel—while transforming the logic inside those spreadsheets into governed, scalable APIs.

You get to keep your beloved spreadsheets (and all that business logic you’ve honed over the years), but IT gets the visibility, control, and performance it needs.

Here’s how teams typically move forward:

1. Identify the spreadsheets that drive critical decisions
2. Use Coherent Spark to convert that logic into secure APIs
3. Integrate those APIs with core systems, portals, or workflows

You don’t need to replace all your hard work, you just need to lift and transform.

The Future Is Governed, Not Restrictive

Insurers can no longer afford the status quo. Regulations are getting tougher, turnover is higher than ever, and expectations for speed, accuracy, and agility are rising.

Forward-looking insurers are already shifting their mindset:

• Excel is a powerful tool—but not the final destination
• Business and IT share ownership of logic
• Platforms like Coherent turn shadow systems into enterprise assets

Shadow IT may have gotten you through crunch times.
Governed execution is how you scale.

Want to see how insurers eliminate shadow IT without breaking what works?