Trim the software portfolio nobody admits is bloated.
Most mid-sized firms have 80+ pieces of software running. Half are barely used. A third overlap with each other. A few are mission-critical and underprotected. We map the whole portfolio, identify duplicates and zombies, and produce a phased plan to clean it up — typically saving 15–25% of SaaS spend in year one.
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How portfolio bloat creeps in.
Every department picked their own tool.
Sales has Salesforce. Marketing has HubSpot. Operations has Monday. Three of them do CRM-ish things.
Tools nobody uses anymore still bill monthly.
Hire-and-forget. Pilots that became permanent. Nobody runs the reconciliation.
Critical apps with no security.
Old line-of-business apps. No MFA, no logging, no backups. But the company runs on them.
Renewal season is chaos.
Six contracts up this month. Each one decided in a panic. Two auto-renew before anyone notices.
The portfolio rationalization engagement.
- 01
Full portfolio inventory
Every app, every contract, every cost. Includes shadow IT — what teams bought without telling IT.
- 02
Usage + value assessment
Who actually uses each tool. What it costs per active user. What it does that's irreplaceable.
- 03
Duplicate + overlap analysis
Where tools do the same thing. Where consolidation is possible. Where it isn't and why.
- 04
Risk register
Critical apps with weak security, no backup, single-point-of-failure dependencies. Prioritized for fixing.
- 05
Rationalization roadmap
12–18 month phased plan: keep, consolidate, retire, renegotiate. Costed savings per move.
- 06
Renewal calendar
Every contract on a calendar with 90-day advance reminder. Never another auto-renewal surprise.
The 8-week rationalization sprint.
- Weeks 1–2
Inventory
Every app discovered through finance records, SSO logs, network traffic, and surveys. Shadow IT surfaced.
- Weeks 3–4
Assessment
Usage analyzed per app. Departmental interviews. Value vs. cost score per tool.
- Weeks 5–6
Strategy
Consolidation candidates identified. Retirement candidates flagged. Replacement recommendations where applicable.
- Weeks 7–8
Roadmap + readout
Phased plan with quarterly milestones. Costed savings. Executive presentation.
What we typically find.
Average reduction in software spend from consolidation and retirement.
Of total portfolio. Most firms have more dead weight than they realize.
Average per engagement. Underprotected mission-critical tools.
Every material contract tracked, with advance reminders.
“We thought we had 50 apps. Senator found 117. Killed 28 of them in 90 days. Consolidated 14 more over the year. Saved $187k annually. Reinvested it into the apps that actually matter.”
Who needs this.
- Firms whose SaaS spend has grown faster than headcount for the last 3 years.
- Anyone post-merger absorbing a second portfolio of tools.
- Firms with no central inventory of what's actually running.
- CFOs who want a defensible answer to 'what are we spending on software and why?'
Q01Will you cut tools the team relies on?
Will you cut tools the team relies on?
Only with the team's input. Rationalization is collaborative, not top-down. The point is informed decisions, not arbitrary cuts.
Q02What about tools the CEO loves?
What about tools the CEO loves?
We document the cost and the alternatives. If the CEO still wants it, we keep it. Strategy, not religion.
Q03Do you handle the vendor renegotiations too?
Do you handle the vendor renegotiations too?
Yes — included. Especially valuable on the bigger contracts.
Q04What if a tool has no obvious replacement?
What if a tool has no obvious replacement?
We document it as 'keep, strategic.' Some apps are irreplaceable. The point is knowing which ones.
Free 60-min portfolio scoping call.
Tell us your rough SaaS spend and number of departments. We'll propose a fixed-fee 8-week engagement with expected savings range.