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The IDC forecast<\/a>s that South Africa\u2019s IT spend will be $12.78 billion (R197 billion) in 2021, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year. One of the biggest contributors to this figure is software and cloud spend, which has grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As organisations rushed to enable remote working, many companies hastily procured software without being fully informed of their longer-term needs. This has potentially resulted in rigid multi-year contracts, overspend on licensing, limited processes in place to manage and control usage and therefore spend, leading to severe implications for future budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the local business world settles into a hybrid of remote and office-based employees, software requirements will change again. Staff numbers may have changed, requiring a greater or reduced number of software licenses. Some on-premises applications that are licensed by location will be back in use and may need additional licenses. In addition, to ensure remote workers are kept safe, different license SKUs \u2013 like E5 Microsoft 365 with added security features – will be required. But not all employees will require that level of security, and an E1 or E3 license may be a more cost-effective fit for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now is the time to rethink software spend to ensure your tech budget is optimised, while avoiding sizeable non-compliance fines, and guaranteeing new ways of working are adequately supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overspending culprits<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n International research firm Gartner estimated<\/a> in 2020 that unused<\/strong> software may represent more than 20%<\/strong> of software expenditure in the average company. Wastage is often attributed to specialist programmes such as design software being deployed across the company, though only a few employees have the knowledge to use them to their full advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Equally, this can leave a business at the mercy of the vendor if non-compliance is claimed following an audit. One in three pieces of software in South Africa is unlicensed, according to the BSA<\/a>. This could open the company up to thousands, if not millions, in non-compliance bills. Having visibility into suspected non-compliance, applying the fixes needed, and, importantly, having a trusted partner to negotiate with the software vendor, can make all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n