You expected the tools to simplify things. For Teams to become your team’s central hub, for SharePoint to organize files, for everyone to work in the same place within Microsoft 365. The promise was clear: fewer emails, less confusion, more collaboration. In reality, everyone uses the tools their own way, information gets lost between platforms, and you spend your days searching for the right file or asking, “Where is it again?” If this situation sounds familiar, that’s normal. In many teams, Microsoft 365 is in place, but the underutilization of digital tools in daily work goes unnoticed,
The real challenge is the adoption of Microsoft 365 digital tools in the team’s actual work, not their mere presence. No one has taken the time to decide what to use for what, where to save what, and how to work together in the same environment. According to a Freshworks study (2025), companies waste an average of $1 out of every $5 invested in software, primarily due to poor adoption and underutilized tools.
The underutilization of digital tools is one of the challenges many managers face. To better understand how this issue fits into a broader set of practices related to Microsoft 365, we recommend starting with our main resource on optimizing Microsoft 365 for team leaders, which serves as a starting point for exploring the various issues addressed.
1. Each member of your team uses M365 digital tools in their own way
One colleague saves their files in their personal OneDrive. Another drops everything into a Teams channel without a folder structure. A third continues to send attachments via Outlook because “it’s simpler.” The result: three versions of the same document exist in three different places, and no one knows which one is correct. This is not a competence problem. It’s a rules-of-the-game problem. Without documented work processes, each person develops their own habits. And in a Microsoft 365 environment, these individual habits prevent the tools from fulfilling their role as a common platform.
2. Information is everywhere and nowhere at the same time
You’re looking for last week’s meeting minutes. It might be in a Teams conversation, maybe in an Outlook email, or perhaps in a SharePoint folder someone created without sharing it. You end up writing in the team channel: “Does anyone know where Wednesday’s minutes are?” This type of question, repeated ten times a week across the entire team, represents hours lost. According to the same Freshworks study, people lose an average of nearly seven hours per week navigating complicated processes and fragmented tools. That’s almost a full day of work per person that disappears, not in producing, but in searching for information to be able to produce.
3. Your team received training on the tools, but nothing really changed
The team was given access to online training on Microsoft 365. Two hours, the same content for everyone, at the same pace. Those who were already comfortable disengaged because it was too slow. Those who needed more time didn’t get the chance to practice. And everyone returned to their desks with the same urgencies as before.
Two weeks later, old habits were back. It’s not that the training was bad. It’s that not everyone learns in the same way or at the same speed, and nothing in daily life reinforces what was learned. Studies on learning retention are clear: about 70% of what is learned in training is forgotten within 24 hours if nothing reinforces the learning in actual work.
And when official tools remain underutilized because training didn’t stick, people look elsewhere. This is exactly what fuels the BYOAI (Bring Your Own AI) phenomenon: team members using ChatGPT, Gemini, or other artificial intelligence tools from their personal accounts, without supervision and without the organization’s knowledge.
According to a survey by WalkMe and SAP (2025), 78% of workers admit to using AI tools not approved by their employer. This is not ill will. It is the direct consequence of no one having defined how to learn and use the tools together. The manager, meanwhile, finds themselves dealing with a problem they don’t even see.
“Identifying problems is the first step. The second is to impose clear rules of the game. Our article Adopting Microsoft 365 Digital Tools presents a 3-step method to structure your team’s reflexes.”
4. Parallel tools appear without anyone deciding on them
One day, you discover that part of the team uses a WhatsApp group to coordinate emergencies. That another subgroup shares files in Dropbox because “it’s faster than SharePoint.” That a Trello board was created to track a project, in parallel with the Planner that no one updates. This is not ill will. It’s a sign that the official tools don’t meet the team’s real needs, or that no one has shown how they could. Each parallel tool creates a new information silo. And each silo makes the overall view a little more impossible.
5. You no longer have an overview of how your team uses the tools
Loss of control doesn’t happen overnight. It settles in quietly, one person at a time. Someone who organizes everything in their email inbox. Another who creates folders that no one else can find. A third who leaves, and with them disappears the entire structure they had built for their role.
One morning, you realize you no longer know how your own department functions daily. Who does what, where. Which documents are up to date. Which conversations led to which decisions. You manage a team, but you’re navigating blindly.
What’s frustrating is that Microsoft Purview already generates usage reports that show exactly who uses what, how often, and which tools are ignored. The information exists. But in most SMEs, no one looks at it and no one knows what to do with it.
But before looking for solutions, you need to pinpoint what isn’t working. The following five reasons concretely show how the underutilization of digital tools affects your team daily.
The real problem behind the underutilization of digital tools
All these reasons point to the same reality: the challenge of digital tool adoption. What has never been done is defining the rules of the game: which tool for which use, where information lives, how the team collaborates in Microsoft 365. Without these rules, everyone does their best with what they know. And technology, instead of simplifying work, becomes an additional layer of complexity. The vicious cycle sets in: the more disorganized it is, the less people adopt the tools correctly. The less they adopt them, the more the manager compensates by doing manual follow-ups. The more they compensate, the less time they have to structure anything.
What the underutilization of Microsoft 365 tools actually costs
Beyond the time lost searching for a file or re-asking for information, the hidden costs are tangible. According to the Freshworks study, software complexity and underutilized tools drain an average of 7% of a company’s annual revenue.
The calculation is simple. Take the number of people on your team. Multiply by seven hours lost per week navigating poorly structured tools. Multiply by the average hourly cost. Then by 52 weeks. The result is the price your organization pays for not having defined the rules for using its digital tools.
| Type of Hidden Cost | Concrete Example |
|---|---|
| Search Time | A person spends 30 minutes finding a file that exists in three versions in three different places. |
| Work Duplication | Two people redo the same document because neither knew the other was already working on it in Teams. |
| Loss of Knowledge | Someone leaves, and all critical information for their role is in their personal OneDrive, inaccessible. |
| Wasted Training | The team undergoes SharePoint training, but without daily support, everyone reverts to old habits within two weeks. |
If you want to explore other issues that team leaders face daily, our complete guide to Microsoft 365 optimization for leaders gives you a global view.
The real problem is a lack of team alignment
Instead, you find shortcuts, you create workarounds, others organize themselves as best they can with what they know. The problem is that everyone does it in their own corner. And you, as a manager, absorb the difference. You compensate, you translate, you bridge the gap between everyone’s ways of doing things. It’s not your role, but it has become your reality.
The real tension is that in SMEs, you never have the luxury of stopping to structure tool adoption. You move forward by delivering, you learn on the fly. So the rules of the game are never defined, and the cycle repeats. But what you see from the field, management doesn’t necessarily see. The blind spots you experience daily—training that doesn’t stick, parallel tools appearing, BYOAI silently taking hold—these are signals that you are best placed to identify and report to management. Your role may not be to make the final decision, but you are the one who can demystify these problems and influence continuous improvement in your organization.
If you recognize yourself in the lack of clear processes hindering your team, the problem you’re experiencing with your digital tools is often a direct consequence.
Adopting Microsoft 365 digital tools as a team starts with clearly seeing the problem
If you recognize yourself in at least three of these five reasons, it’s likely that the underutilization of digital tools is costing your organization far more than you imagine. The first step is to recognize the problem for what it is: it’s not the technology that’s failing, it’s the rules of use. The second is to understand that it can change, without reinventing everything.
If you wish to learn more about Grav-ITI, you can consult this section of our site.
We have thought about the best way to help managers like you move from observation to action. Our next article on digital tool adoption in Microsoft 365 gives you a concrete roadmap to start structuring how your team uses its tools, one step at a time.
