Okta blind spots are unmanaged applications and identities that live outside of Okta's automated provisioning and visibility. These blind spots arise when:
- Apps are not federated through SSO
- SCIM isn't enabled (or too expensive)
- Contractors or vendors access tools directly
- Legacy or AI tools lack enterprise APIs
While Okta secures the front door, these tools sneak in through the side and back. And they're growing.
Modern IT environments face incredible SaaS sprawl as someone adds a design tool outside the provisioning flow, a project manager invites a contractor to Jira via personal email, or a team forgets to remove an intern from Figma.
The uncomfortable truth is that up to 40% of business-critical SaaS apps are unmanaged applications that operate outside your centralized identity and security infrastructure, creating dangerous blind spots in your governance strategy.
Why visibility gaps are costing you more than you think
Most IT teams assume they've got their SaaS stack under control. But research shows otherwise:
- 30-40% of enterprise apps are not managed by the company's IdP
- 2 FTEs per 1,000 employees are typically consumed by manual SaaS cleanup
These apps often go unnoticed until an audit fails, a security incident occurs, or your CFO starts asking about SaaS ROI.
The hidden cost of manual management
1. License waste
Unconnected apps mean unmonitored licenses. Tools that nobody uses continue renewing, draining budgets. Without visibility into usage, IT can't justify what to cut.
In fact, organizations often pay for hundreds of licenses assigned to suspended users in Okta who are no longer with the company, thinking these licenses would be removed during offboarding workflows, but missing them because they're assigned through Okta groups not part of the workflow.
2. Audit overhead
Every SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit becomes a spreadsheet marathon. You're hunting down owners, usage logs, and confirming offboarding manually, especially for non-SSO tools.
With multiple domains, you're pulling CSVs from Okta, Google Workspace, and individual app admin panels, then doing cross-sheet comparisons to match users across email aliases and departments.
Stitchflow users have reported saving weeks of manual prep by replacing VLOOKUP-fueled audits with app-level reporting.
3. Security debt
Disconnected apps can't enforce MFA or password policies. They're often the last to be offboarded or forgotten altogether.
According to IBM's 2023 Cost of a Data Breach report, 53% of breaches involve orphaned or stale accounts. That's a gap your IdP doesn't cover.
4. Deprovisioning that never finishes
An employee leaves. Okta removes access to 70% of tools. The rest? They're in Google Sheets, buried in an old admin's inbox, or completely missed.
This is the core challenge of non-SCIM apps deprovisioning. Even when workflows exist, they often break down due to:
- Non-SCIM apps
- Lack of API support
- Access managed by business units
- One-off exceptions
In reality, Okta deprovisioning was never meant to be complete. While Okta works well for integrated applications, it doesn't reach the entire tail of disconnected SaaS apps, leaving a 40% gap that exposes organizations to real risk.
This becomes especially problematic with disconnected apps, where over 40% of apps in a typical SaaS stack lack SSO support, SCIM capabilities, or usable APIs, requiring manual intervention that often gets missed.
Contractor management adds another layer of complexity, as contractors often fall outside automated controls and their access is provisioned manually, inconsistently, or not at all.
Why this problem is getting worse, not better
The rise of AI = The rise of disconnected tools
AI adoption is exploding. From design to productivity to security, teams are trying AI tools before IT even knows they exist.
But here's the catch: most AI tools don't support SAML, SCIM, or API integrations, meaning they can't be easily governed. And IT can't block them without becoming the productivity police.
This creates the same challenge we see with passwordless rollouts: while adoption of tools like Okta FastPass surge, many legacy applications, niche SaaS tools, and AI platforms lacking SAML or OIDC support break the continuity of the user experience.
Example: A former contractor still has access to an AI writing tool and continues uploading sensitive internal docs, months after they've left.
The manual work behind "managing the gaps"
Let's break down the effort required to manage apps outside of Okta manually:
Multiply this across 100+ apps and 1,000+ users, and you've got a full-time job just managing what your IdP misses.
The reality is that manual IAM processes are breaking security budgets and creating hidden liabilities. When your IAM program relies on manual workflows for provisioning, deprovisioning, and access reviews, especially for disconnected apps, you're burning your most valuable resource: time from a team you can't easily replace.
Why Okta can't solve non-SCIM apps deprovisioning alone
Okta's power lies in identity federation and automated provisioning for apps that support it. But there's a ceiling when it comes to non-SCIM apps deprovisioning:
- SSO/SCIM tax: Many apps place basic features behind $10-15/user/month enterprise tiers
- API fragmentation: Newer, AI-based or niche tools don't offer robust APIs
- Contractor chaos: External identities bypass centralized identity systems
- Multi-domain mess: M&A leads to multiple IDPs, multiple domains, and more confusion
You're left with a disconnected ecosystem your IdP can't see or touch.
The challenge isn't unique to Okta. Most IT tools fail at providing comprehensive visibility because they're designed for their specific use cases, not cross-tool orchestration.
Stitchflow's solution: Complete non-SCIM apps deprovisioning
"Your identity provider is the front door. Stitchflow is the flashlight that sees what's happening behind the scenes."
Stitchflow was built by Okta product veterans who knew exactly where the cracks in the system lived. We don't replace your IdP. We extend it to handle non-SCIM apps deprovisioning completely.
With Stitchflow, you get:
- Full visibility into apps outside Okta
- Real-time deprovisioning for disconnected apps
- Audit-ready access reviews (automated)
- Contractor governance even without SCIM
- No more blind renewals with usage insights for every license
What IT teams are saying
Here's what real users say about their before-and-after with Stitchflow:
"Before Stitchflow, everything was spreadsheets and manual audits. Now we actually see how users are provisioned across different apps."
— Aaron Darby, Rula
"Audits used to take weeks. With Stitchflow, it's all in one place. We eliminated hours of back-and-forth."
— Carlos Jimenez, CIO & CISO
"Our team was wasting 2 days a week just reconciling accounts. Stitchflow gave us that time back."
— Peter Hadjisavas, CISO
Stitchflow vs. manual work
Final word: You can't secure what you can't see
Your IdP is only as good as the apps it manages. In today's reality with AI sprawl, shadow IT, contractors, and disconnected tools, visibility is your new superpower.
It's time to stop settling for partial governance. Stitchflow helps you:
- Eliminate orphaned accounts
- Save on underused licenses
- Automate renewals and access reviews
- Ensure full offboarding every time
Ready to see what you're missing?
Start your demo today and experience what 100% SaaS visibility feels like.
Frequently asked questions
Non-SCIM apps deprovisioning refers to removing user access from applications that don't support SCIM (System for Cross-Domain Identity Management) protocols. Unlike SCIM-enabled apps that integrate with identity providers like Okta for automated user lifecycle management, non-SCIM apps require manual intervention to provision and deprovision users. This creates security risks, compliance gaps, and operational overhead since IT teams must manually track and remove access across disconnected applications.
Okta excels at managing applications with SCIM support, but it can't automate non-SCIM apps deprovisioning because these applications lack the necessary integration protocols. Many vendors charge an "SSO tax" (often $10-15+ per user monthly) for enterprise features, newer AI tools don't offer robust APIs, and legacy systems weren't built with modern identity standards. This forces IT teams to rely on manual processes, spreadsheets, and CSV uploads for user management.
These apps can lead to serious issues like orphaned accounts, unnecessary license renewals, and audit failures. IBM reports that over half of data breaches involve stale accounts, many of which come from tools outside identity provider oversight.
Solutions like Stitchflow extend your existing identity infrastructure to handle non-SCIM apps deprovisioning automatically. These platforms discover all applications (connected and disconnected), provide real-time deprovisioning triggers based on HR or IdP events, support CSV-based automation for apps without APIs, and offer complete audit trails for compliance. This eliminates manual processes while ensuring 100% coverage across your SaaS environment, including contractor accounts and legacy systems.
Organizations using Stitchflow save significant IT time, reduce audit prep from weeks to hours, and eliminate unnecessary SaaS spend. Customers have also reported fewer compliance risks and better visibility into who has access to what across the full stack.
Jay has been serving modern IT teams for more than a decade. Prior to Stitchflow, he was the product lead for Okta IGA after Okta acquired his previous ITSM company, atSpoke.
