Workforce Risk from Application Management: Unquantified Threats

When most leaders think about cyber risk, they picture firewalls, threat detection tools, or overworked IT teams racing to apply patches.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

60% of cyber breaches stem from known but unpatched vulnerabilities, often tied to applications someone thought IT owned.
And with the average breach now costing $4.4 million, this gap is no longer a technical issue.
It’s a people issue.

Across nearly every enterprise, hundreds of employees outside of the IT department heads, managers, and functional leaders are quietly listed as “application owners.” Not because they asked for it. Not because they were trained for it. But because their name ended up in a spreadsheet one year… and it stuck.

Some of them may even be sitting inside your HR team.

Maybe someone in L&D owns your learning platform.
Maybe a People Partner has sign-off authority for the recruitment system they helped select.

These individuals do not see themselves as part of the cyber risk chain—yet they hold final responsibility for updates, patches, and decisions that protect employee data and your employer brand.

This is the unquantified risk hiding in plain sight.
And it’s growing.

A Capability Gap - Not an IT Failure

This problem didn’t happen because IT neglected its responsibilities.

It emerged because:

• Applications grew faster than org structures

• “Agile ways of working” blurred ownership

• Shared responsibility models were never formalized

• Everyone assumed someone else had it handled

The result?
A silent, organizational exposure that places well-meaning people in roles they were never trained to do.

This isn’t a performance issue.
It’s a capability issue—one that spans functions and impacts every part of the business.

How CHROs and Business Leaders Can Eliminate Invisible Application Risk

Juriba’s Windows Application Management solution helps organizations remove this hidden risk by bringing clarity, structure, and automation to application ownership.

Here’s how:

1. Define Clear Application Ownership and Accountability

Most teams don’t even know which applications need an owner or what the owner’s responsibilities should be.

Juriba helps your organization:

• Identify applications requiring explicit ownership

• Assign owners based on role, not convenience

• Track ownership activity across teams

Clarity replaces assumption. Accountability replaces ambiguity.

2. Support & Train Owners With Automated Workflows

Application owners shouldn’t need to be technical experts.

Juriba gives them:

• Automated reminders

• Simple check-in forms to report new versions

• Easy visibility into risks or updates that require decisions

This ensures owners stay informed, and IT stays aware, without manual chasing.

3. Protect Employees and the Organization From Invisible Ownership Gaps

When no one knows who owns what, updates stall.
When updates stall, vulnerabilities grow.
When vulnerabilities grow, risk surges.

Juriba closes this gap by ensuring:

• Every app is accounted for

• Every app has an owner

• Every owner has support

4. Achieve 100% Windows Application Coverage With Automation

With Juriba, organizations can automate up to 80% of Windows applications, while the remaining 20% flow through streamlined, guided workflows with role-based collaboration.

This means:

• Faster packaging, testing, and deployment

• Predictable, secure application cycles

• Complete visibility for both IT and business leaders

The outcome:
Every app is packaged, tested, deployed, and secured  every time.

5. Expand IT Capacity Without Expanding the Team

Because the automated workflow covers most applications, IT can deliver more with the same resources.

You ensure:

• The right people

• With the right skills

• Doing the right work

And your risk profile shrinks dramatically.

6. Deliver a Better Employee Experience

Faster patches and deployments mean happier employees.
Juriba customers routinely report:

• Reduced deployment cycles from months to days

• In some cases, minutes

• An 80% reduction in packaging time

When apps work, people work.

“A Hidden Job With No Training, No Definition and Major Security Consequences.”

The longer application ownership stays invisible, the greater the risk to your business.

Juriba gives CHROs and business leaders:

• 100% visibility of a previously hidden risk

• A structured program that protects employees and data

• Tools that transform vulnerability into capability

Because when people know the job exists—and have the right support—they can do it safely.

What Juriba’s Windows Application Management Enables

1. Reduce application management costs by up to 40%

Redirect savings toward high-value, strategic work.

2. Automate up to 80% of applications

Eliminate repetitive manual tasks.

3. Achieve 97% faster application smoke testing

Identify issues before they become vulnerabilities.

4. Accelerate responsiveness with 24/7, 7-to-15 minute packaging cycles

Give employees what they need—when they need it.

5. Improve visibility and reduce risk

Quickly identify unmanaged apps or missing owners.

6. Scale across thousands of applications with consistency and compliance

Never lose track of app health or ownership again.

7. Use Juriba AI intelligence to remove human error

Reduce risk while increasing accuracy and speed.

The ROI Is Clear

For a minimal investment, enterprises can mitigate millions in potential breach costs while freeing skilled talent for high-impact work.

100% application coverage enabled by automation.
100% confidence enabled by IT oversight.

Your people may already be doing the job.
They just don’t know it yet.

Give them the visibility, structure, and support to do it safely.

Expose the people risk behind today’s cyber breaches

Unpatched applications aren’t just a technical failure.
They’re the result of invisible ownership, unclear accountability, and a lack of structured application management.

Our executive whitepaper, Windows Application Management: The Unquantified Risk in Your Organisation, reveals:

• How everyday employees have become accidental application owners
• Why this hidden capability gap is driving security and compliance exposure
• The real business cost of unmanaged and unpatched applications
• How automation and visibility eliminate people-risk at scale

Get a clear, leadership-level view of the risks hiding in your organisation and the proven path to remove them.

Download the whitepaper today
and turn hidden accountability into controlled, secure readiness.