IT teams are losing visibility, as tech cost pressures mount
That's according to Flexera's 2025 State of ITAM Report - which highlights growing SaaS waste, persisting audit costs and evolving priorities
Published on 19th June 2025
Flexera have released their 2025 State of ITAM Report, which reveals a concerning decline in complete visibility across the technology stack – down to 43% from 47% year-over-year. Yet, as pressure mounts to optimise costs, the collaboration of IT asset management (ITAM) with cloud (44%) and FinOps (38%) teams is on the rise, suggesting that ITAM teams are increasingly working across organisational silos to address comprehensive visibility challenges, increase financial accountability and drive operational efficiency.
Flexera’s annual report surveys global IT professionals to explore how the evolution of ITAM, FinOps, security, software asset management (SAM) and hardware asset management (HAM) teams influences the value they deliver. It also examines IT investment trends across public, hybrid, and SaaS technologies.
“Complete visibility across IT assets is foundational to every good technology decision,” said Becky Trevino, Chief Product Officer at Flexera. “The fact that it’s slipping at a time when organisations are under intense pressure to rationalise costs is a real concern. You can’t optimise what you can’t see and without clear insight into the entire technology stack, it’s nearly impossible to eliminate waste, ensure compliance, or make cost-effective investment decisions. This year’s report showcases why the collaboration between ITAM and FinOps is no longer optional—it’s a strategic imperative.”
Highlights from the report include:
- Minimising SaaS sprawl is an increasing imperative: Thirty-five percent of respondents say SaaS waste has increased over the past year, suggesting that the financial impact of underutilised SaaS subscriptions is taking a toll on budgets. In addition, SAM professionals are doubling down on SaaS oversight, with 59% actively tracking usage and 56% rightsizing contracts and subscriptions to eliminate unnecessary spend.
- Software use rights take the spotlight: The report also highlights a dramatic rise in the challenge of managing software use rights—now ranked as the number one concern for SAM teams, up from sixth place just a year ago. This surge is largely attributed to the growing complexity of cloud-based licensing models and the rapid migration of enterprise resources to cloud environments.
- Audits still plague organisations (and their bottom line): Nearly half (45%) of surveyed organisations report spending over $1 million on software audits over the past three years, a figure one percentage point less than 2024. Twenty-three percent of organisations spent more than $5 million on audits in 2025, a slight increase from 2024. The findings suggest that the intricacies of software use rights and the continued shift to the cloud are keeping audit defence high on the agenda of IT teams.
- Microsoft continues audit streak: Half of respondents said Microsoft audited their organisation in the past three years. The tech giant has remained at the top of this list for the past several reports , followed closely by IBM (37%). There was a slight increase in audits reported from SAP (32%) and ServiceNow (21%) compared to last year’s findings. Adobe (24%) remained unchanged, but Oracle decreased from 31% to 24% and Salesforce dropped from 25% to 20% year over year.
This year’s findings underscore the urgent need for smarter, more agile SAM strategies as organisations strive to balance innovation with fiscal responsibility.
“The role of ITAM is shifting from operational to transformational,” said Phil Perfetti, senior product marketing manager at Flexera. “While visibility into cloud licenses is gradually improving, the complexity of managing hybrid IT environments is also increasing, and any serious blind spots are a problem that modern organisations can no longer afford.”
The full survey results are available here – which explores the thinking of 506 global IT professionals across industries and context areas.
