Your software budget faces unprecedented pressure. SaaS prices increased 12.2% in 2024 while general inflation ran at 2.7% — a 4.5x gap that’s reshaping how you allocate technology spend. Software now consumes 21% of IT budgets, up from 13% just five years ago, and the average organisation spends over $9,000 per employee annually on SaaS subscriptions.
SaaS inflation has persisted for three consecutive years at 11-12% annually. Vendors like Salesforce, Microsoft, Google, and Atlassian are raising prices 6-40% across their product lines, using AI bundling as justification and relying on customer switching costs to prevent departures. Meanwhile, shrinkflation—discussed below—compounds these overt increases.
This guide provides the comprehensive overview you need to understand what’s happening and clear paths to tactical responses. You’ll find detailed analysis on specific vendor tactics, frameworks for auditing and reducing spend, negotiation playbooks for securing better contracts, tool comparisons for spend management platforms, and governance strategies for long-term cost control.
What you’ll find in this resource hub:
- How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025 — Vendor-by-vendor breakdown of specific price increase tactics and what to expect at renewal
- How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation — Complete framework for discovering waste and optimising licences
- How to Negotiate Better SaaS Contracts and Lock In Lower Prices — Negotiation playbook with timing strategies and contract language templates
- Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management — Fair comparison of leading platforms to help you select the right tool
- How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts — Strategic guide to establishing policies and controls for ongoing cost management
What Is SaaS Inflation and How Does It Compare to General Inflation?
SaaS inflation is the year-over-year rate of price increases in Software-as-a-Service subscriptions, currently running at 12.2% according to the Vertice SaaS Inflation Index — 4.5 times higher than general inflation in G7 countries at 2.7%. This gap represents systematic vendor pricing power that’s outpacing economic fundamentals, turning software budgets into a pressure point for technology leadership.
The Vertice SaaS Inflation Index measures actual contract renewal price changes across thousands of SaaS vendors, providing the most authoritative benchmark for tracking software cost increases. In 2024, the index recorded its highest-ever annual increase at 12.2%, while general consumer price inflation stabilised around 2-3% in developed economies. SaaS inflation has consistently outpaced general inflation for three consecutive years, with an average rate of 11-12% annually.
For IT budgets, this means software is consuming a growing share of total spend. BCG research shows software’s share of IT budgets grew from 13% to 21% over five years — a 50% increase driven primarily by per-seat price increases rather than expanded usage. For the first time ever, software spending has surpassed employer contributions to healthcare coverage.
The gap between SaaS inflation and general inflation matters because it reveals vendor pricing behaviour disconnected from underlying cost pressures. While SaaS companies operate with 80%+ gross margins, they’re raising prices at rates that suggest scarcity rather than abundance. Joel Windels from Vertice observes that “software vendors are hiding behind the idea that inflation is high, so therefore they can charge more” — even as their actual cost increases remain modest.
Deep dive: How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025 provides vendor-by-vendor analysis of specific price increase tactics.
Why Are SaaS Prices Increasing Faster Than Regular Inflation?
SaaS vendors possess significant pricing power due to high customer switching costs, vendor consolidation reducing competition, and AI bundling that justifies premium pricing. Unlike commodity markets where inflation tracks production costs, SaaS operates with 80%+ gross margins, allowing vendors to raise prices based on customer captivity rather than cost pressures.
Vendor consolidation has fundamentally reduced competitive pressure. In CRM, marketing automation, and collaboration software, 2-3 vendors now dominate each category. Major vendors now derive the majority of their revenue growth from price increases rather than new customer acquisition — a clear signal of pricing power over market expansion. When you’re locked into Salesforce, Microsoft, or Google’s ecosystem, the competitive alternatives that once disciplined pricing have largely disappeared through acquisition or market exit.
Customer switching costs create vendor lock-in that enables sustained pricing increases. Migrating from Salesforce to HubSpot or Microsoft to Google Workspace involves data migration, workflow reconfiguration, user retraining, and integration rebuilding — costs that often exceed 18-24 months of the price increase being avoided. Vendors understand this math and price accordingly. As long as the annual 10-15% increase costs less than migration, they know you’ll stay.
AI feature bundling has become the newest justification mechanism. Microsoft forces Copilot into M365 subscriptions, Google bundles Gemini into Workspace, and Salesforce packages Einstein AI whether customers use it or not. This adds 10-20% to renewal costs while claiming “enhanced value” from features many organisations don’t adopt. The AI tax appears across platforms as vendors shift from optional AI add-ons to mandatory AI inclusion in base tiers, regardless of actual customer usage or ROI. Our detailed vendor analysis examines how each major platform implements this tactic.
The combination creates a pricing environment where vendors can extract maximum value. They’ve consolidated markets to reduce alternatives, built switching costs that trap customers, and layered AI features that justify price increases. The result is inflation running 4x general rates with limited competitive pressure to moderate increases.
Deep dive: How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025 breaks down specific vendor tactics and percentage increases.
Response strategy: How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts provides long-term controls to limit vendor pricing power.
How Much Does SaaS Software Cost Per Employee on Average?
The average organisation spends $9,100 per employee annually on SaaS subscriptions, according to Vertice’s 2025 research. This represents a year-over-year increase of 15% from the previous $7,900 benchmark, and the figure continues climbing as vendors layer AI features and premium tiers onto existing contracts.
This per-employee cost compounds dramatically as organisations scale. A 200-person company faces an annual SaaS bill of $1.82 million; scaling to 500 employees pushes costs above $4.5 million. These figures exclude implementation costs, training, integration development, and the hidden expenses of tool sprawl where teams adopt redundant solutions. Companies now manage an average of 275 SaaS applications, creating coordination complexity alongside direct costs.
Cost-per-employee varies significantly by industry and company maturity. Technology companies with developer-heavy workforces average $12,000-15,000 per employee due to development tools, infrastructure platforms, and collaboration software. Professional services firms typically run $7,000-9,000 per employee, while retail and manufacturing average $5,000-7,000. Healthcare leads all sectors at $10,150 per employee, driven by specialised clinical applications like Epic and compliance tools such as HIPAA-certified communication platforms.
The growth trajectory concerns leadership teams across functions. Software’s share of total IT budgets has expanded from 13% to 21% over five years, and with SaaS inflation running at 12% annually versus 2-3% general IT cost inflation, this budget pressure will intensify without active cost management interventions. The question isn’t whether to act but how quickly you can implement controls before renewals lock in higher baseline costs.
Cost reduction: How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation provides a framework for identifying waste and optimising licences.
Tool selection: Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management helps you choose platforms that track per-employee costs automatically.
What Percentage of My IT Budget Should Go to Software?
Industry benchmarks suggest software should represent 15-21% of total IT budgets, though this varies by company size, industry, and technology maturity. The critical consideration isn’t hitting a specific percentage but rather ensuring software spending delivers measurable value and aligns with strategic priorities versus accumulating through unmanaged sprawl.
Software’s share of IT budgets has grown from 13% to 21% over five years — a 50% relative increase driven primarily by SaaS subscription growth and price increases. This shift represents software consuming budget that historically funded infrastructure, personnel, or innovation projects. IT budgets for third-party services grew by about 6% annually from 2019 through 2024, but software costs increased by 50% as a share of total tech budget during that period.
The “right” software percentage depends on your operating model. SaaS-first organisations leveraging platforms like Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow might appropriately run 25-30% software spend if this replaces custom development and infrastructure costs. Conversely, product companies with significant internal development may run 12-15% software spend while investing heavily in engineering salaries. The percentage itself matters less than the efficiency of spending.
What matters more than the percentage is spending efficiency. Research shows 20-30% of SaaS licences go unused, 40% of organisations pay for redundant applications, and shadow IT accounts for an additional 30-50% of managed software spend. A 20% software budget where 30% is waste is worse than a 15% budget fully optimised. The goal isn’t hitting a benchmark percentage but eliminating waste and ensuring every dollar delivers value.
Optimisation framework: How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation shows how to identify waste and improve efficiency.
Governance approach: How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts establishes controls for sustainable spending.
Which SaaS Vendors Have Raised Prices the Most in 2024-2025?
Salesforce leads major vendor increases at 6-9% annually with 72% of growth from price hikes rather than new customers. Microsoft implemented 10-40% increases across products, Adobe raised Creative Cloud prices 17-50%, Atlassian increased Jira and Confluence approximately 7.5%, and Google embedded Gemini AI into Workspace for effective 15-20% cost increases through bundling.
Price increase justification falls into three categories. AI bundling drives vendor tactics at Microsoft (Copilot), Google (Gemini), and Salesforce (Einstein). Tier elimination forces upgrades at Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft M365. Direct percentage hikes appear across IBM (6-24%), Oracle (8%), SAP (5%), and most major platforms. Power BI Pro jumped from $9.99 to $14 (a 40% increase), while Google Workspace Business Plus went from $18 to $22 per user (22% increase).
The AI bundling pattern described earlier—Copilot, Gemini, Einstein—delivers 10-20% cost increases disguised as “enhanced value.” Vendors price AI features at premium tiers regardless of customer adoption, knowing switching costs deter migration. The AI tax applies whether you use the features or not, as vendors shift from optional AI add-ons to mandatory AI inclusion in base tiers, regardless of actual customer usage or ROI.
Shrinkflation affects 28% of SaaS contracts according to CFO Dive research. Vendors reduce features, eliminate lower-priced tiers, impose usage limits, or add surcharges (Microsoft’s 5% monthly billing fee) while maintaining or increasing headline prices. This hidden pricing pressure compounds overt increases. A 7% renewal price increase combined with feature reduction or usage caps can deliver effective cost increases of 15-25% when organisations must purchase add-ons to maintain previous functionality.
Vendor analysis: How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025 provides detailed breakdown of specific vendor tactics and price changes.
What Is SaaS Shrinkflation and How Does It Affect You?
SaaS shrinkflation occurs when vendors reduce features, eliminate pricing tiers, impose usage limits, or add surcharges while maintaining or increasing subscription prices — effectively reducing value-per-dollar. CFO Dive research shows 28% of SaaS contracts experienced shrinkflation in 2024, making it as significant as direct price increases for total cost impact.
Shrinkflation manifests in multiple forms that are harder to detect than headline price increases. Microsoft’s elimination of lower-tier M365 plans forces customers to higher-priced SKUs. Salesforce’s introduction of usage-based consumption charges on previously unlimited features. Adobe’s reduction of cloud storage in Creative Cloud packages. Atlassian’s Data Center price increases designed to force cloud migration. Each tactic reduces what you receive for the same or higher price. Understanding these patterns helps you negotiate better terms when renewing contracts.
Vendors layer shrinkflation onto price increases, compounding budget impact. More than half (57%) of SaaS vendors hide their pricing from public view, and 60% deliberately mask their rising prices, making cost clarity difficult. When tier eliminations combine with annual price increases and feature reductions, the effective cost increase can reach 15-25% even when the vendor announces only a 7% price adjustment. These compound effects rarely appear in vendor communications.
Detecting shrinkflation requires comparing contract terms year-over-year: seat minimums, included features, usage limits, support levels, SLA terms, and pricing tier availability. Usage analytics become critical — if licence costs increase while available features decrease, you’re experiencing shrinkflation regardless of vendor messaging about “enhanced value.” The challenge is that vendors make pricing complicated and difficult to understand by design, as they charge the same price for reduced functionality while looking to increase revenues.
Vendor tactics: How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025 identifies specific shrinkflation patterns.
Negotiation response: How to Negotiate Better SaaS Contracts and Lock In Lower Prices shows how to push back on shrinkflation.
How Do I Audit Our Current SaaS Spend Across the Organisation?
Understanding the scale of price increases raises an immediate question: how much are you actually spending? Start with SSO integration logs to identify all applications receiving authentication, cross-reference with expense reports and credit card statements to capture shadow IT, then analyse usage patterns via login frequency and feature adoption to classify tools as essential, underused, or redundant. This three-step discovery reveals the true scope before optimisation decisions.
Comprehensive SaaS audits typically uncover 30-40% more applications than IT teams initially estimate. Shadow IT accounts for this gap — departments purchasing directly via credit card, free tier applications that escalated to paid, legacy tools that continue auto-renewing, and acquisitions that brought duplicate software stacks. IT is responsible for just 26% of SaaS spending, leaving the majority in business unit hands where visibility is limited.
Usage analytics distinguish purchased licences from active users. SSO login data shows which employees actually authenticate monthly, while application-specific analytics reveal feature adoption depth. As noted earlier, 20-30% of paid licences typically remain unused, presenting immediate optimisation opportunities without functionality loss — you can eliminate unused seats without impacting operations.
The audit should quantify overlap and redundancy. Many organisations run 3-5 tools covering the same use case — separate project management platforms, multiple communication tools, overlapping analytics solutions — because different teams made isolated buying decisions. Identifying these duplications enables consolidation conversations. The goal is creating a comprehensive inventory with owner, department, renewal dates, usage metrics, and cost allocation before making optimisation decisions.
Complete framework: How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation provides the step-by-step audit process with optimisation strategies.
Supporting tools: Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management evaluates platforms that automate the discovery and audit process.
How Do I Negotiate Better SaaS Contract Terms at Renewal?
Begin negotiations 120+ days before contract expiry with usage audit data showing licence right-sizing opportunities, use competitive alternatives as leverage for discounts, insist on multi-year price cap language with 2-3% annual increases maximum, and leverage vendor end-of-quarter urgency to secure 15-30% discounts from list prices.
Timing determines negotiation leverage. Vendors discount more aggressively in the final weeks of their fiscal quarters, and procurement teams who engage 90-120 days before renewal can pressure vendors to discount early rather than risk missing quarterly targets. Last-minute renewals surrender this timing advantage. Align your negotiations with vendor fiscal calendars to maximise leverage when sales representatives need deals to hit quotas.
Licence right-sizing creates immediate negotiation power. Reducing seat counts by 20-40% based on actual usage data from your software audit establishes credible departure risk that vendors must address with pricing concessions. This works even without competitive alternatives because vendors prefer discounted renewals to customer losses. Usage data gives you the evidence to push back on vendor assumptions about your needs.
Multi-year agreements with price caps protect against future inflation. Contract language specifying “2% annual increase maximum” or “CPI-indexed pricing” locks in predictability. While extreme examples exist (the U.S. federal government achieved 90% off Slack through volume consolidation and public sector leverage), most organisations achieve 15-30% off list with prepared negotiation. The vendor gross margins support these discounts; the question is whether you have the leverage and preparation to extract them.
Negotiation playbook: How to Negotiate Better SaaS Contracts and Lock In Lower Prices provides tactical scripts, timing strategies, and contract language templates.
Preparation: How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation gives you the audit data needed for negotiation leverage.
What SaaS Management Platforms Help Track Software Spending?
Manual tracking can’t deliver the visibility needed for effective negotiation. This is where specialised platforms become essential. Enterprise-focused platforms include Zylo for renewal management and cost optimisation, Productiv for usage analytics and shadow AI visibility, Torii for workflow automation, and Vertice for spend management with market intelligence. These tools automate discovery, track usage, predict renewals, and provide benchmark data that manual tracking cannot deliver at scale.
SaaS spend management platforms solve the visibility problem that enables cost creep. By integrating with SSO systems, expense tools, and vendor APIs, they automatically discover applications, track usage, allocate costs to departments, and alert on upcoming renewals — functionality impossible to replicate with spreadsheets as software portfolios exceed 50-100 applications. With companies managing an average of 275 SaaS applications, manual tracking becomes impractical.
Platform selection depends on organisational priorities. Zylo excels at renewal management and vendor negotiation preparation, with customers ranking reduced software costs as the number one outcome. Productiv provides deepest usage analytics for optimisation decisions. Torii offers strongest workflow automation for approval processes. Vertice combines spend management with competitive market intelligence from their inflation index research, giving you benchmarking context for negotiations.
ROI from these platforms typically achieves payback in 6-12 months through licence optimisation and negotiation improvements. Identifying 30 unused licences at $100/month each saves $36,000 annually; negotiating 15% better renewal terms on a $500,000 contract saves $75,000 — both common outcomes that exceed platform costs. The platforms enable optimisations that manual processes can’t scale to deliver, making them essential complements to your governance framework.
Platform comparison: Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management provides detailed feature analysis and selection guidance.
How Do I Set Up a SaaS Governance Framework?
Establish a software governance office with procurement policy authority, mandate SSO integration for all applications to ensure visibility, implement approval workflows requiring CTO/CFO sign-off for purchases above defined thresholds, and create vendor evaluation criteria that assess total cost of ownership including switching costs and lock-in risk.
Governance frameworks prevent the shadow IT and uncontrolled renewals that enable SaaS cost spirals. Without central oversight, departments make isolated buying decisions optimising for immediate functionality rather than portfolio efficiency, leading to redundant tools, incompatible systems, and fragmented vendor relationships that dilute negotiation leverage. Without these controls, marketing might purchase HubSpot while sales uses Salesforce, creating $120,000 in redundant CRM spend that audit discovery reveals.
Effective governance balances control with agility. Overly restrictive policies drive underground procurement and slow legitimate business needs; overly permissive approaches enable chaos. The framework should define clear approval tiers — for instance, auto-approve under $1,000/year, require manager approval for $1,000-10,000, and mandate governance committee review above $10,000 — with fast-track processes for pre-approved vendors. Acme Corp requires SSO integration for all tools serving more than 50 users, automatically flagging non-compliant purchases for review within their procurement workflow. This prevents governance from becoming a bottleneck while maintaining control.
Policy enforcement requires technical controls, not just documentation. Mandating SSO integration makes governance enforceable — applications that can’t integrate don’t get approved, immediately creating visibility into usage and preventing shadow IT. Blocking corporate credit cards from software vendor charges except through approved procurement channels reinforces this control. Technical enforcement works where policy documentation alone fails.
Framework implementation: How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts provides policy templates, maturity model, and cultural change strategies.
Supporting tools: Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management covers platforms that enforce governance workflows.
SaaS Cost Management Resource Library
Understanding the Problem
How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025
Vendor-by-vendor breakdown of specific price increase tactics, AI bundling strategies, and shrinkflation patterns affecting enterprise renewals. Essential reading for understanding what drives the 12.2% inflation rate and what to expect at your next renewal.
Tactical Response Strategies
How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation
Complete framework for discovering shadow IT, analysing usage patterns, eliminating redundancy, and optimising licence counts before renewals. Includes audit checklists, usage metrics thresholds, and consolidation decision criteria.
How to Negotiate Better SaaS Contracts and Lock In Lower Prices
Negotiation playbook covering optimal timing, leverage tactics, contract language for price caps, and scripts for securing 15-30% discounts. Includes vendor fiscal calendar alignment and multi-year agreement trade-offs.
Tools and Long-Term Controls
Comparing Zylo Productiv Torii and Vertice for SaaS Spend Management
Fair comparison of leading spend management platforms with feature matrices, pricing models, and guidance for matching tools to organisational needs. Covers Zylo’s renewal management, Productiv’s usage analytics, Torii’s workflow automation, and Vertice’s market intelligence.
How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts
Strategic guide to establishing procurement policies, controlling shadow IT, assessing vendor lock-in, and evaluating open-source alternatives. Includes governance office structure, approval tier definitions, and maturity progression path.
FAQ Section
Where Can I Find Authoritative Data on SaaS Pricing Trends?
The Vertice SaaS Inflation Index provides the most comprehensive benchmark, tracking actual contract renewal price changes across thousands of vendors. Published annually, the index measures year-over-year SaaS price increases and compares them to general inflation. Additionally, CFO Dive, SaaStr, and AnglePoint regularly publish enterprise software pricing research based on contract data and renewal tracking.
What Are the Hidden Costs in SaaS Contracts I Should Watch For?
Beyond headline per-seat pricing, watch for consumption-based charges (API calls, storage, compute), mandatory support fees added at renewal, professional services requirements for upgrades, integration costs for ecosystem lock-in, monthly billing surcharges (Microsoft adds 5%), seat minimums that exceed your needs, and auto-renewal clauses that trigger without explicit approval. Read the full analysis in How Salesforce Microsoft Google and Atlassian Are Raising Prices in 2025.
How Are AI Features Driving Up Enterprise Software Costs?
Vendors bundle AI capabilities (Copilot, Gemini, Einstein) into standard subscriptions and use this as justification for 10-20% price increases, regardless of whether organisations actually use AI features. This AI tax appears across Microsoft M365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and other platforms as vendors shift from optional AI add-ons to mandatory AI inclusion in base tiers. Our vendor pricing analysis details exactly how each platform implements this strategy.
Should We Use Best-of-Breed SaaS Tools or Vendor Suites?
The decision depends on integration complexity, negotiation leverage, and total cost of ownership. Vendor suites (Microsoft M365, Google Workspace, Salesforce Platform) offer bundled pricing, unified support, and pre-built integrations but create vendor lock-in and may include unused features. Best-of-breed tools provide optimal functionality but require custom integration, multiple vendor relationships, and potentially higher total costs.
Consider the cost comparison for a 200-person company: M365 suite might run approximately $2,400 per user annually for full functionality. Best-of-breed alternatives combining Slack, Notion, Zoom, and Dropbox can reach $3,200 per user annually when integration development, multi-vendor management overhead, and ongoing maintenance costs are factored in. The suite delivers 25% cost savings but creates deeper vendor lock-in. Evaluate total cost of ownership including switching costs and migration flexibility. Learn the complete framework in How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation.
What Triggers SaaS Price Increases at Renewal Time?
Vendors raise prices at renewal for multiple reasons: scheduled annual increases (5-9% typical), tier eliminations forcing upgrades, AI feature bundling, transition from promotional to standard pricing, usage-based charges replacing unlimited plans, and general vendor pricing power where customer switching costs exceed price increase pain. Understanding these triggers helps with negotiation timing. See tactical responses in How to Negotiate Better SaaS Contracts and Lock In Lower Prices.
How Do I Identify and Eliminate Unused SaaS Licences?
Analyse SSO login data to identify licences with zero authentication in the past 90 days, cross-reference application-specific usage analytics for feature adoption patterns, survey licence holders about actual tool necessity, and review expense data for recurring charges without assigned owners. Typical organisations find 20-30% of licences are unused and can be immediately eliminated. Full audit process detailed in How to Audit and Reduce SaaS Spending Through Software Rationalisation.
When Should I Consider Open-Source Alternatives to Commercial SaaS?
Evaluate open-source alternatives when vendor lock-in risk outweighs convenience, when self-hosting total cost (infrastructure, maintenance, support) falls below SaaS subscription costs at scale, when data sovereignty or security requirements mandate on-premises deployment, or when vendor pricing becomes predatory with limited alternatives. Factor in opportunity cost of internal maintenance and security patching responsibilities. Framework provided in How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts.
How Do I Control Shadow IT and Shadow AI Adoption?
Implement SSO integration requirements making applications visible through authentication logs, mandate procurement approval workflows for software purchases, block corporate credit cards from direct vendor charges except through approved channels, provide easy-to-access approved alternatives so teams don’t circumvent policies, and create fast-track approval processes (24-48 hours) for legitimate urgent needs. Technical controls work better than policy documentation alone. Implementation guide in How to Build a SaaS Governance Framework That Prevents Cost Blowouts.
Conclusion
SaaS inflation running at 12.2% versus 2.7% general inflation represents vendor pricing power disconnected from underlying costs. With software consuming 21% of IT budgets and climbing, the pressure on your technology spending will intensify through 2025 and beyond. Vendors have consolidated markets, built switching costs that trap customers, and layered AI features that justify price increases — creating an environment where they can extract maximum value from your renewals.
The response requires both immediate action and long-term strategy. Start with a comprehensive audit to understand your true software spend and usage patterns. Use that data to negotiate better contract terms at renewal, securing price caps and eliminating unused licences. Implement spend management tools to maintain visibility as your portfolio scales. Build governance frameworks that prevent shadow IT and uncontrolled renewals from recreating the waste you’ve eliminated.
The five cluster articles in this hub provide the tactical guidance you need. Each focuses on a specific aspect of the response — from understanding vendor tactics to implementing governance controls — giving you actionable frameworks rather than abstract strategy. Your next renewal is coming. The question is whether you’ll face it prepared with data, leverage, and alternative options, or whether you’ll accept vendor pricing as inevitable.
Start with the audit. Everything else builds from there.
