Across the average enterprise, only ~54% of SaaS licences are actually used and 27 to 32% of cloud spend is wasted on idle and overprovisioned resources. On an illustrative £12M technology base (of which ~£6M is SaaS and cloud), the composite value at risk is £2.0M to £4.4M annually, of which £1.2M to £3.4M is recoverable without service disruption. This briefing sets out the seven hypotheses tested by the Accelr8 Technology module, mapping the Technology and Automation lever onto the Cost Efficiency and Operating Leverage pools.
Signal from the research
SaaS licences used
~54%
Average enterprise; the rest sits idle (Zylo 2025 SaaS Management Index)
SaaS spend wasted
25 to 30%
On unused or under-used licences; ~£15M+ a year in large estates (Zylo 2025)
Cloud spend wasted
27 to 32%
Idle compute and overprovisioning are 60% of it (Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud)
Struggle to manage spend
84%
Of organisations rank cloud cost control their top challenge (Flexera 2025)
Seven testable hypotheses
| # | Hypothesis | Evidence base | Test during sprint | Recovery | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Unused and Idle SaaS Licences | Productiv: ~40% of licences unused across ~100M analysed. Zylo 2025: only 54% used. Vertice 2025: 33% under-utilisation. | Match Entra sign-in and app telemetry to assigned seats; reclaim or downgrade dormant licences | £360K to £1.1M | High |
| T2 | Cloud Waste (idle and overprovisioned) | Flexera 2025: 27 to 32% of cloud spend wasted; idle compute (35%) and overprovisioned instances (25%) are 60% of all waste. | Rightsizing and idle-resource detection against utilisation metrics, read-only | £340K to £560K | High |
| T3 | Over-tiered Licences | Premium tiers (e.g. E5 vs E3) assigned beyond need; advanced features unused. Common in inherited or auto-provisioned estates. | Feature-usage vs tier mapping; downgrade where premium entitlements are dormant | £150K to £450K | Med-High |
| T4 | Ghost Assets and Departed-User Seats | Licences, devices and subscriptions still consuming spend for inactive or departed users (Ghost Hunter; Entra ID disabled accounts). | Cross-reference HR leavers and Entra disabled accounts against active entitlements and devices | £100K to £300K | Med-High |
| T5 | Duplicate and Overlapping Tooling | Shadow IT and tool sprawl: multiple applications purchased for the same capability across teams and entities. | Map applications by capability rather than name to reveal overlap and consolidation candidates | £150K to £500K | Medium |
| T6 | SaaS Auto-Renewal and Price Drift | Subscriptions auto-renew with embedded uplift and seat creep; renewals unreviewed against actual consumption. | Renewal calendar plus consumption-vs-entitlement reconciliation before each notice window | £120K to £350K | Medium |
| T7 | Maintenance on Retired Assets | Support and maintenance still billed on decommissioned hardware, lapsed modules and unused environments. | Reconcile CMDB and asset register against live support contracts and invoices | £80K to £200K | Medium |
Composite value at risk, £12M technology base
| Hypothesis | Exposed base | Leakage rate | Value at risk | Recovery potential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 Unused SaaS | £6M SaaS | 15 to 30% | £900K to £1.8M | £360K to £1.1M |
| T2 Cloud Waste | £2.5M cloud | 27 to 32% | £675K to £800K | £340K to £560K |
| T3 Over-tiered | £3M licences | 5 to 15% | £150K to £450K | £150K to £450K |
| T4 Ghost Assets | Cross-cutting | Qualitative | £100K to £300K | £100K to £300K |
| T5 Duplicate Tooling | £3M to £5M | 5 to 10% | £150K to £500K | £150K to £500K |
| T6 Renewal Drift | £6M SaaS | 2 to 6% | £120K to £350K | £120K to £350K |
| T7 Retired Maintenance | £2M to £3M | 3 to 7% | £80K to £200K | £80K to £200K |
| Total composite | £2.0M to £4.4M | £1.2M to £3.4M | ||
The compounding read: technology waste is recurring and low-risk to act on, because reclaim is reversible and read-only to detect. At a 10x EBITDA multiple, the recoverable range implies £12M to £34M of enterprise value, before counting the Operating Leverage gain from a cleaner, automatable estate.
Sources
Zylo (2025) SaaS Management Index, idle licences and annual waste. Productiv licence-utilisation analysis (~100M licences). Vertice (2025) SaaS budgeting insights, 33% under-utilisation. Flexera (2025) State of the Cloud, cloud waste and idle/overprovisioned split. Gartner shadow IT and software asset management research.
Disclaimer: Figures are illustrative for a fictitious mid-market PortCo with ~£12M technology spend (~£6M SaaS and cloud) and a 10x EBITDA exit multiple, for demonstration only. All percentages are published industry averages from the cited research. Actual waste at any specific PortCo varies by estate, FinOps maturity and architecture. The 40-day diagnostic sprint replaces these estimates with measured actuals.