A technology cost audit is the systematic review of everything your organisation spends on technology — and what it is actually getting for that spend.
Done properly, it identifies waste (unused licences, duplicate tools, auto-renewed contracts), benchmarks your vendor pricing against market rates, surfaces contract renewal risks, and produces a prioritised action plan with quantified savings.
Most organisations have never done one. Many assume it requires consultants, months of work, or access to data they don't have. None of those assumptions are true.
What a technology cost audit covers
**SaaS licences.** Every subscription, its cost, the number of licences purchased, and the number actually in use. The gap between purchased and used is recoverable waste.
**Cloud infrastructure.** AWS, Azure, GCP spend by service, with utilisation rates. Underutilised reserved instances, idle resources, and services nobody is using are common findings.
**Telecom contracts.** Mobile SIMs, fixed lines, broadband. SIM cards issued to employees who have left, lines provisioned for offices that no longer operate, and contracts auto-renewed without renegotiation.
**Hardware and devices.** The number of devices under active management versus the number being paid for. Includes devices under support contracts for equipment that is no longer in use.
**Contract terms.** Auto-renewal dates, notice periods, pricing escalators. The contracts most at risk of unfavourable renewal are those with the shortest notice periods and the longest time since last renegotiation.
The data you need
**Finance data.** A full export of technology-related spend from your accounting system for the past 12 months. Most organisations can get this from Xero, QuickBooks, or their ERP in under an hour. The raw data does not need to be clean — classification is part of the audit process.
**Identity and usage data.** Your Azure AD or Okta usage reports. These tell you who is actually using what, independent of what the vendor's billing system says. Available via the admin console of either system.
**Contract documents.** For your top 10-15 vendors by spend, the current contract: pricing, term, renewal date, and notice period. If you don't have these, request them from the vendor — they are required to provide them.
**Asset inventory.** A list of devices, SIMs, and infrastructure resources currently under management. Most organisations have this in their MDM, IT service desk, or (at minimum) a spreadsheet.
The audit process: week by week
Week 1: Data collection
Day 1-2: Export 12 months of technology spend from your finance system. Categorise by vendor, spend type (SaaS, cloud, telecom, hardware, services), and billing frequency (monthly, annual).
Day 3-4: Pull Azure AD and/or Okta usage reports. Export active user counts per application for the past 30 days. Note any applications with zero or near-zero activity.
Day 5: Request contracts for your top 10-15 vendors. Create a renewal calendar listing every vendor, contract end date, notice period required, and current annual spend.
Week 2: Analysis
Day 6-7: Cross-reference spend against usage. For each SaaS tool, identify: How many licences are paid for? How many are actively used? What is the annual cost of the inactive licences?
Day 8: Benchmark your top contracts against market rates. For each major vendor, research what comparable organisations pay. Sources: G2 pricing data, vendor comparison sites, peer networks, or a benchmarking platform.
Day 9: Identify immediate action items. Sort findings by annual saving. The top 5-10 items typically represent 80% of the recoverable value.
Day 10: Build the action plan. For each finding, assign ownership, set a deadline, and estimate the saving. Format for presentation to the CFO or CTO.
What to expect to find
For a 200-person organisation spending £400,000/year on technology, a typical first audit finds:
- £35,000-£55,000 in inactive SaaS licences - £20,000-£40,000 in contracts priced above market rate - £15,000-£25,000 in duplicate tools serving the same function - £8,000-£15,000 in contracts auto-renewing in the next 90 days without review
Total recoverable: £78,000-£135,000. Against a total technology budget of £400,000, that is 20-34% of spend.
Making it continuous
A one-time audit produces one year's worth of savings. The same analysis run quarterly produces compounding returns as the estate evolves — new tools get added, headcount changes, contracts come up for renewal.
The organisations that recover the most budget over time are those that have made technology spend analysis a routine process rather than a crisis response. The data is already available. It just needs to be looked at.
Automation vs manual
The manual approach described above works. It takes two weeks the first time and about a day per quarter thereafter. The output is usually a spreadsheet and a slide deck.
The automated approach — using a platform like OTIS — runs the same analysis continuously, surfaces findings as they emerge (a new inactive licence, an approaching renewal, a price anomaly), and maintains a live picture of your technology estate rather than a quarterly snapshot.
For organisations spending £300,000+ on technology, the time savings and the improvement in findings quality typically justify the cost of automation within the first quarter.
Automate this analysis with OTIS
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