Every company has software it pays for but doesn’t use. Or software that three people rely on but nobody in IT knows about. Or software that was bought to solve a problem that no longer exists.

Tech stack bloat is real. And it costs more than most organisations realise — not just in licensing fees, but in complexity, security risk, and the mental overhead of managing dozens of tools that barely talk to each other.

So how do you actually audit what you’ve got? Here’s a practical approach that doesn’t require hiring a consultancy or spending six months on a review.

Step 1: Build an Inventory (Yes, All of It)

Start by listing every piece of software your organisation uses. Every SaaS subscription. Every on-premises tool. Every browser extension your marketing team installed without telling anyone.

This sounds simple. It isn’t. The average mid-sized company uses between 100 and 200 SaaS applications, according to Productiv. Many of those are purchased on individual credit cards or free trials that auto-converted to paid plans.

Pull data from your finance team’s expense reports, your SSO provider’s login records, and your IT asset management system if you have one. Then go department by department and ask: what else are you using that we might not know about?

You’ll be surprised. Everyone is.

Step 2: Categorise by Function

Once you’ve got your list, group tools by what they do:

• Communication: Slack, Teams, email, Zoom
• Project management: Asana, Monday, Jira, Trello
• CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive
• Documentation: Notion, Confluence, Google Docs, SharePoint
• Finance: Xero, MYOB, Stripe
• Marketing: Mailchimp, Canva, Google Analytics, HubSpot (again)

You’ll immediately spot overlaps. Two project management tools. Three ways to share documents. A CRM that half the sales team ignores in favour of a spreadsheet.

Those overlaps are where the money is. Not just the subscription costs, but the time people waste switching between tools and the data that gets siloed because different teams use different systems.

Step 3: Assess Usage and Value

For each tool, ask three questions:

1. How many people actually use it? Not how many licences you have — how many active users.
2. What would happen if we turned it off tomorrow? Would anyone notice? Would anything break?
3. Does it integrate with our other systems? A standalone tool that doesn’t connect to anything else is a data island.

Most organisations find that 20-30% of their tools could be eliminated with minimal disruption. Another 20-30% could be consolidated — replacing two or three overlapping products with one that covers the same ground.

Step 4: Check Security and Compliance

This is the bit that often gets skipped in informal audits, but it matters. For each tool, you need to know:

• Where is the data stored? (Australia, US, elsewhere?)
• Is it encrypted at rest and in transit?
• Does the vendor comply with your industry’s regulatory requirements?
• Who has admin access, and when was that last reviewed?
• What happens to your data if you cancel?

The Australian Cyber Security Centre has good resources on minimum security standards for business software, particularly for SMBs that might not have a dedicated security team.

Step 5: Make Decisions and Actually Follow Through

Here’s where most audits stall. You’ve done the work, built the spreadsheet, identified the waste. Now you need to act on it.

Create three lists:

• Kill: Tools that can be cancelled immediately with no impact.
• Consolidate: Tools that overlap and should be merged into a single solution.
• Keep: Tools that are well-used, well-integrated, and providing clear value.

For the “consolidate” category, you’ll need to evaluate alternatives and plan a migration. That’s a project in itself. But don’t let the complexity of consolidation stop you from making the easy wins on the “kill” list. Cancel those unused subscriptions this week, not next quarter.

A Few Things People Get Wrong

“We might need it later.” Maybe. But you’re paying for it now. If you haven’t used a tool in six months, cancel it. You can always re-subscribe.

“We already paid for the annual plan.” Sunk cost. Don’t let a past decision lock you into another year of waste. Set a reminder to cancel before renewal.

“Switching tools will upset the team.” Sometimes, yes. But keeping three overlapping tools because nobody wants to have the conversation is worse. Be direct about why you’re consolidating and give people time to adjust.

Make It a Habit

A tech stack audit shouldn’t be a once-every-five-years event. Build it into your annual planning cycle. Review subscriptions quarterly. Assign someone — even part-time — to keep the inventory current.

Your tech stack should serve your business, not the other way around. And the only way to ensure that is to regularly check whether it still does.