Unused Software: Can you put a figure on your software waste?

How much is wasted or unused software costing you? Our latest report – covering 3.6 million seats and 1,800 software titles across 129 leading corporations – reveals that on average, companies are wasting 37% of their software spend – a proportion that would be deemed unacceptable in any other part of the business.
We found that there is a huge incidence of software waste across all sectors, even those with a reputation for being lean. The inability of organizations to reduce average waste levels over the four years of our reporting suggest that they remain unaware of the underlying business implications.
So why aren’t businesses doing anything to become less wasteful?
The answer lies in a shift in the way organizations approach IT. In 2015, CIOs are no longer concerned with driving down costs, but have instead turned their gaze towards adding value. Because of this, eliminating software waste, which is often seen as a cost-cutting exercise, has slipped to a far lower place in their priorities. This de-prioritization is a mistake because controlling and reducing software waste adds value to the business by enabling innovation and reducing risk.
How so? For starters, the more unused or unaudited software present within an IT estate, the greater the organization’s vulnerability to attack. Cutting the waste out of software spend not only reduces this risk, but reclaiming what goes unused would give organizations back 37% of their budget to spend on the kind of innovation that will give them competitive edge.
Download our report for an in-depth analysis of these issues as well as the results of a 4 -year software waste benchmark study spanning 129 global enterprises and 3.6 million corporate employees, exposing the cost of unused software to businesses. The report reveals the worst offenders by country, industry, software titles, company size and more.
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