How Many Apps Does Your Business Use? If You’re Not Sure, You’re Probably Wasting Money

Disney+ has The Bear, so you add that too. Netflix for Black Mirror? Why not. Prime? Sure. Before long, you’re paying more than $200 a month for half a dozen streaming platforms, some of which you barely touch. 

The same thing is happening inside your business. Except instead of binge-worthy TV, it’s SaaS apps. And instead of $200, it’s potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Welcome to the world of tech sprawl. 

On average: 

• Smaller businesses (under 100 staff) use between 50 and 100 applications. 
• Mid-sized businesses (100–2,500 staff) are now using between 250 and 300 apps across the organisation. 

That number keeps growing, especially with the explosion of AI tools and individual software subscriptions. 

Previously, software and applications were almost entirely stored on a hard copy disc and installed onto devices by IT. Now, many apps are cloud-based and intuitive, and employees don’t need to ask IT to help, which is just one of the reasons apps and tools go undetected. 

What’s more, around 50% of apps are owned and managed by individual business units like marketing, HR, finance or operations. Employees are empowered to solve problems with tools they can access on their own, and often that’s a good thing. But without oversight, your technology stack quietly grows into a bloated, disjointed, expensive mess. 

AI-native tools have only accelerated this sprawl. In 2024 alone, spend on AI apps grew by more than 75%. Individual employees are signing up for ChatGPT subscriptions to get their work done faster and expensing the cost back to the business. With that, it might not be a surprise that ChatGPT is now the second most-expensed app by employees.  

That’s a clear sign of enthusiasm, but also a warning. With every team adding new tools, duplication becomes inevitable, oversight becomes impossible, and costs keep spiraling out of control. 

• Wasted spend: At least 30% of the average tech stack delivers little or no value. That’s up to $135,000 wasted per year on underutilised SaaS tools for a mid-size company. 
• Underutilised licences: One of the biggest hidden drains. Businesses often pay for hundreds of user licences across multiple apps and tools, but only a fraction of them are used. Auto-renewals quietly roll on while logins drop off and no one’s keeping count. 
• Inefficiency: Employees juggle disconnected tools, duplicate functions, and endless logins. Instead of enabling productivity, tech gets in the way and becomes a blocker. 
• Security risks: Disconnected apps and unmonitored apps introduce vulnerabilities in your data governance. 
• Third-party access blind spots: With every untracked app, there’s a potential vendor accessing or storing your business data. Without a clear record of who has access, where the data goes, and how it’s secured, your organisation is increasingly at risk. 
• Compliance headaches: The more scattered your software and application environment, the harder it is to meet your regulatory obligations. 

Every application in your IT environment is a potential entry point into your systems, your workflows, and data. Many cloud-based tools offer open integrations and third-party plug-ins. That’s great for flexibility, but dangerous without visibility. 

And when (not if) something goes wrong – like a breach, a leak, or an audit – you can’t protect what you can’t see. 

That’s why application rationalisation and structured application layer design are more than just cost-saving exercises. 

Employees often source their own tools because they’re solving real problems and trying to get work done. The goal is to guide that, rather than block or ban it. That means: 

• Making it easy to raise a hand and say “I’ve found something great.” 
• Giving IT visibility to ensure tools are secure and sustainable. 
• Having guardrails in place for responsible, not restrictive, adoption. 
• Encouraging exploration within a supported framework. 

Our guide to using AI tools in the workplace makes it clear: when staff feel supported, not policed, they’re more likely to stay within policy and bring innovation to the table with everyone’s best interests in mind. 

We help organisations to untangle and clean up their application sprawl and to create a simpler, more strategic technology environment through our Application Layer Design process. 

Here’s how: 

1. Discover: We audit your current app landscape, map how your teams really work, and uncover hidden tools, unknown licences, and risky data flows. 
2. Smart Scan: We identify functionality gaps, research the market for safe and compliant alternatives, and recommend better-fit tools. 
3. Design: We develop a streamlined application architecture that shows how data flows, where integrations live, and what needs to be secured. 
4. Implement: We bring it to life and offer ongoing support to ensure the optimised ICT Platform works long after go-live, with no surprises. 

• Cost savings by removing duplicated, underutilised, or outdated tools. 
• Licence optimisation by tracking actual use, cutting unused seats, and stopping silent renewals. 
• Stronger data governance with fewer unknowns and clearer oversight of where your business data is stored and shared. 
• Simpler employee experience with fewer logins, less training time, and less confusion. 
• A culture of guided innovation, where teams are supported to explore tools while staying aligned to business goals. 
• Reduced compliance risk by understanding and controlling how your apps interact with your business data. 

If your software and application stack has outgrown your oversight, you’re not alone.  

We’ll help you sort out what’s essential, what’s redundant, and what’s putting your business at risk so you can simplify, save, and support innovation with confidence. 

Explore how our Application Layer Implementation service can help or get in touch below.