Reclaiming Control: strategies to tame unchecked SaaS spending
In a volatile economy, the need to wrangle unmanaged SaaS spend and take actionable steps to regain control has never been more important.
Published on 15th October 2025
There’s no denying the impact that the cloud revolution has had on dramatically enhancing flexibility and scalability for businesses. Although overall cloud inefficiencies appear to be decreasing, the use of AI-driven public cloud services is growing rapidly.
For example, usage of data warehouse services—often used to feed AI models—has grown by 76%, according to Flexera’s 2025 “State of the Cloud” report. Meanwhile, GenAI adoption is surging, with 72% of organisations now using these services to some degree, up from 47% in 2024.
Today, SaaS applications have become well-regarded as indispensable tools for empowering teams, driving innovation and business value. While these benefits undeniably bring business advantages, SaaS adoption isn’t without its challenges, and managing costs is at the top of the list.
As organisations increasingly rely on SaaS applications to drive ROI, they often face escalating costs due to various factors like departmental procurement, shadow IT and a lack of centralised oversight. As companies aim to stay afloat amid a volatile economy, CIOs must wrangle unmanaged SaaS spend and, most importantly, take the actionable steps needed to regain control.
Challenges Behind The 'Why' Of Rising SaaS Costs
This year, many CIOs are expecting an approximate 8.9% cost increase for IT products and services, requiring those with stagnant budgets to make difficult decisions about their own IT spending. Organisations are also unsurprisingly continuing to prioritise AI investments, which is driving cost increases for recurring IT spending. As innovation persists, tech budgets will continue to be stretched, making it increasingly important for companies to be sharper and more in tune with their budgets.
A major challenge for CIOs and tech teams is what is known as SaaS sprawl, which is when employees independently acquire SaaS tools without IT or security oversight. This often leads to duplicated efforts, overlapping functionalities and a complex web of subscriptions that’s difficult to manage.
Adding to the problem is shadow IT, where employees adopt unauthorised applications without IT’s knowledge. While these tools may seem convenient, they introduce significant security risks, compliance issues and exacerbate untracked SaaS spending.
For CIOs, understanding the “why” behind rising SaaS costs is key to regaining control, reducing risk and driving smarter, more strategic technology investments. Without clear visibility into what’s driving spend—from redundant tools to shadow IT—organisations risk inefficiency, budget overruns and increased security exposure. By identifying the root causes, CIOs can shift from reactive cost-cutting to proactive optimisation, aligning SaaS investments with long-term business goals.
Three Common Pain Points In The SaaS Management Struggle
Those responsible for managing cloud usage and costs are increasingly broadening their focus beyond public cloud (IaaS/PaaS) to better balance spend, usage and long-term strategy.
According to the Flexera report, 79% of IT professionals now participate in cloud software decisions, with 69% involved in managing SaaS usage and costs and 64% overseeing cloud-based software licenses. Yet despite this expanded oversight, many organisations still struggle with the basics of SaaS management. A key challenge is limited visibility, making it difficult to track which applications are in use, who is using them and what they’re costing the business.
Right now, we’re seeing many organisations face the following critical pain points, which are largely driven by the lack of visibility around areas such as:
- Overspending on SaaS usage due to unused or underutilised licenses: Lack of visibility into SaaS usage often leads organisations to overspend on unused or underutilised licenses. Overlapping tools and duplicate subscriptions only compound the inefficiency, driving up unnecessary costs.
- Robust security measures for enterprise-grade software: When sensitive data and personal information are exposed, it escalates the risks of data breaches and non-compliance, potentially exposing businesses to reputational damage, brand denigration and risk of significant financial consequences.
- Managing compliance, especially in heavily regulated industries: Without the appropriate oversight of SaaS usage, it's difficult to ensure all applications meet data privacy and security requirements, putting organisations at risk of violations and costly penalties.
Identifying these pain points in SaaS management enables organisations to reduce costs, enhance security, improve user satisfaction and streamline operations—all of which are critical for sustainable business growth and competitive advantage.
Unlocking Efficiency With A Holistic SMP
So, what are the best solutions for effectively managing SaaS costs today? While implementing an SMP (SaaS management platform) is no magic bullet, it absolutely serves as a critical first step toward a cost-saving solution.
SMPs offer a centralised solution for discovering, managing and optimising all SaaS applications across an organisation. By leveraging the power of SMPs, organisations will be able to achieve game-changing cost savings outcomes, especially as SaaS environments become even more complex, decentralised and prone to waste without centralised oversight.
An SMP can be leveraged to streamline the following: discovery and visibility, spend management, usage monitoring, security and compliance and, lastly, automation. If your organisation hasn’t implemented an SMP yet, you risk getting left behind and gaining a competitive edge over others. In our fast-paced, digital-first landscape, proactive SaaS management is everything and has quickly become a non-negotiable practice.
In 2025, basic and traditional approaches, like using spreadsheets and emails, to manage SaaS subscriptions just won’t cut it anymore. Today, CIOs are encouraged to embrace a holistic approach to SaaS management and harness the full potential of an SMP and its functionalities.
