A new report has revealed an alarming number of companies wasting unused software licenses each year.
Survey of six million customers across nine industries in 12 regions. Keep thinking (opens in a new tab) looked at over 30 popular software tools and found that 50% of all licenses were unused.
The cost of unused licenses alone is said to cost companies $45 million each month, resulting in nearly $537 million in wasted software each year.
Unused software licenses
Worse still, the number could be even higher, as the estimates only consider the average cost of licenses, which may not take into account the higher tiers some companies may opt for.
The most common license expirations include: tableau, TrelloNotion app, Spotfire i Blue jeans.
At the other end of the spectrum, Loose, Teams, Magnification, webexAND Asanas all were noted to be actively used, suggesting that communication, videoconferencingand work management platforms remain critical to business operations.
A separate survey of 200 IT leaders found that only 5.5% of them said they had “full visibility” of how many of their employees actively use licensed software, further suggesting that companies are out of touch with the habits your employees.
To reduce huge unnecessary expenses, Nextthink says companies should regularly conduct software usage audits, which can help them negotiate more favorable contracts and terms in the future.
Companies are also encouraged to abandon the “one-size-fits-all” approach, where employees are often left with overloaded hardware and loads of unnecessary software, leaving others without the resources they need.
Finally, companies should also consider collecting qualitative data alongside quantitative data that supports license usage. Employees may find certain tools particularly useful from time to time, but the numbers may not suggest this.
Whatever situation your business finds itself in, given the challenging prospects ahead, reducing your software bills can help you weather the storm and protect employee roles.