Today’s IT professionals are tasked with maintaining seamless connectivity, smooth operations, and continuous access for all members of their organizations. Business users expect this to be their day-to-day reality, and anything that falls short is often considered the IT team’s failure. However, IT teams and MSPs are often relying on outdated, fragmented network tools that cause a host of challenges including troubleshooting inefficiencies, delays in resolution, and snags in maintaining optimal network performance.
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Lacking visibility through existing solutions and struggling with SaaS sprawl not only amplifies daily stress for IT teams, but also directly impacts end-user satisfaction – a critical metric by which IT professionals are evaluated. Auvik recently conducted its annual survey of both internal IT team members and MSPs, resulting in a number of findings that underscore the role of network tooling in both job performance and job satisfaction. This article will explore these insights in depth, and how embracing advanced technologies including AI and automation can lighten the load for IT professionals and set a new benchmark for excellence in network management.
Tool Sprawl is a Multi-Headed Monster
Auvik’s 2025 IT Trends Report uncovered a wealth of data pointing to insufficient or disparate network tooling as a key contributor to work stress, frustration, and less than optimal performance.
First, let’s look at the reported problems in the IT tool stack. Nearly 70% of respondents reported a mixed-vendor IT environment, with MSPs feeling the burden of tool sprawl most acutely – and 50% of the MSPs surveyed work with 10 or more network tools. This is visible in specific tools such as server monitoring tools, as one specific example – 74% of respondents shared that server monitoring contributes to their tool sprawl. Having too many different digital tools and SaaS applications presents a number of challenges for IT teams, including a lack of integration. Tools not working seamlessly together puts the burden on IT professionals to manually bridge gaps between two or more solutions, leading to inefficiencies and increasing the chance of error. In fact, 37% of IT professionals surveyed mentioned lack of integration as a major problem in their network tool stack.
Having to switch back and forth between multiple tools also wastes time and disrupts workflows, prolonging time to resolution when issues occur. Multiple different tools also add to complexity, and demand that IT professionals become experts in each different tool. In reality, most IT teams are spread too thin and simply don’t have the time.
Of course, tool sprawl and silos often mean some functionalities overlap between different tools, meaning organizations are paying more without gaining any additional functionality or benefits. Unsurprisingly, the most common problems with network tool stacks reported by IT professionals included tool sprawl (48%) and complexity (45%), which as outlined, go hand-in-hand.
Impacts on Job Performance, Satisfaction
According to the research, 44% of IT professionals noted that a lack of real-time visibility to network connectivity or other issues impedes their productivity. Challenges around gaining proper visibility are compounded, since 85% of IT pros reported they support remote workers at least part of the time. It’s even harder for IT professionals to gain visibility and control of end-user environments when they are working remotely and relying on infrastructure that is outside IT’s control.
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Without proper visibility, IT professionals are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to resolving end-user requests. This is a pressing issue, with 58% of IT pros reporting they spend half or more of their work week resolving end-user requests. Imagine the time they could be saving on resolving (or even preventing) end-user issues if they had the proper visibility and tooling to be productive. This is compounded further by the fact that 39% of IT professionals said that difficult/severe network issues often outweigh smaller requests, which typically come directly from end users. When end users feel their requests are being ignored or not resolved in a timely manner, their satisfaction with IT’s performance plummets (meanwhile, end-user satisfaction continues to be a major metric against which IT’s success and performance is measured).
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But that’s not where IT’s frustrations end when it comes to the toolset they are provided. 47% of those surveyed reported feeling frustrated they are not consulted earlier in the procurement process for new tools. For one thing, they are working with these tools on a daily basis, and likely know better than anyone what types of functionality and features they need most. They also indicated it’s a significant lift on their part to have to learn to troubleshoot technology they didn’t fully investigate or approve before it was purchased.
Embracing Advanced Technology
Clearly, legacy systems, disparate technology, and digital tools purchased without IT’s knowledge or buy-in are creating massive challenges with productivity and network performance. However, rapid advancements in automation and AI present a transformative opportunity. Seize the opportunity. By integrating cutting-edge technologies into their workflows, IT teams can streamline operations, proactively address network issues, and elevate the experience of end-users no matter where they are working.
To do this, we need to break through the barriers, real or perceived, that IT teams face to transform. With 36% of IT professionals lacking confidence they would be allowed to experiment with new technology such as AI and automation tools, the call here is to IT leaders to instill this confidence in their teams. Clear the murky corporate policies around such experimentation and directly empower your users to find transformative technologies and experiment with new technologies. The challenge needs to be overcome for IT departments to learn what types of tools exist and which would be most beneficial in their environments. Teams have the resources to make these transformative changes. There’s no shortage of transformative technologies that teams can implement. For example, 28% said they are considering investment options in network automation. It’s critical to have a clear idea of how this increasing budget can best be spent to truly transform rather than simply spend.
Empower your IT team to find repetitive, time-intensive tasks performed daily that can now be automated with the right tooling. Your frustrated and overworked IT teams deserve the opportunity to unload some of this burden and stress, upskill and be able to focus on bigger, more strategic initiatives that will help propel the organization forward. Since budgets are healthy, now is the perfect time for CIOs, CTOs, and other tech and business leaders to invest in their IT teams’ infrastructure and empower them to explore the advanced AI and automation solutions available that can make their lives easier and improve satisfaction for all users within the organization.
