Uncontrolled technology sprawl can lead to myriad risks within organisations, making regular reviews and licensing assessments crucial for business.
This is according to Natasha Bezuidenhout, Head of Cloud Services at Altron Digital Business, who says many organisations are losing control of their technology estates and licence management.
Bezuidenhout says: “Technology sprawl – also known as IT sprawl or tool sprawl, occurs when an organisation accumulates a wide and often uncoordinated set of technologies, tools, platforms and systems across its environment. The leading contributors to this sprawl are rapid cloud adoption, lack of enterprise architecture discipline and regular technology optimisation, and sometimes decentralised decision-making.”
As businesses grow, merge or transform, their digital footprint expands, which can result in licences being over-purchased or misaligned to actual usage, and redundant tools going unnoticed and driving up costs.
She says managing technology estates remains a complex administrative overhead for many organisations: “With the complexity of licensing management and understanding the compliance requirements from vendors, the management of these environments sometimes takes a back door and is not a business focus area. This leads to environments that are not running optimally and are not effectively licensed.”
Bezuidenhout notes that local enterprise audits conducted by resellers and vendors like Microsoft partners or software asset management firms indicate that up to 35% of licences were found to be either underutilised or redundant.
Risks of unchecked sprawl
Allowing this sprawl to continue unchecked can result in risks such as security vulnerabilities, operational fragility and downtime, and slowed agility and innovation, she says. “Organisations face increased risks of vendor audits and non-compliance, and IT teams lack a unified view of what’s being used, by whom and for what, and organisations can develop strategic blind spots.”
Within technology sprawl, poorly managed software licensing can rack up costs, Bezuidenhout says.
“The cost implications of technology sprawl include increased IT spend via redundant licensing and subscriptions, higher integration and development costs, hidden costs from shadow IT and poor ROI due to delayed projects. In addition, legacy systems not retired on time may lead to unsustainable tech maintenance over time and unnecessary software investments,” she says. “All vendors have compliance criteria associated with how licences should be leveraged in an environment. Missing these and being audited could result in hefty penalties.”
Audits and assessments
Regular licensing assessments and audits help organisations mitigate the risks and costs of technology sprawl, says Bezuidenhout. “The standard approach would be to complete an annual review, however, where customers have an active change-over in staff or resources and where systems and licensing requirements change. However, it is more effective to complete these validations twice yearly,” she says.
“Assessments identify the correct types of licensing to be used and ensure that licensing is assigned and activated correctly. Cost savings are achieved by not paying for unnecessary assignments and ensuring the most cost-effective ways of licensing the environment have been applied.
True-Up Licensing Assessments
Bezuidenhout says: “We find that more organisations are opting in for licensing assessment support as a service to help them overcome their technology sprawl.”
Altron Digital Business partners with corporate and enterprise customers to help them take back control with True-Up Licensing Assessments, which enable businesses to optimise their technology investments, reduce risk and unlock hidden value that directly supports their business goals.
A True-Up Licensing Assessment is not just about counting seats, Bezuidenhout says. It’s about aligning licensing strategy to business goals, the organisation’s operational model and its future roadmap.
Altron Digital Business brings a structured, consultative approach to assess what licences the organisation currently owns, what is being actively used and what is not, opportunities for consolidation, re-harvesting or optimisation, gaps or risks from a compliance or security perspective, and alignment to evolving business needs like cloud migration, AI adoption or remote work enablement. By identifying unused or underutilised licences, Altron Digital Business helps organisations to reallocate resources to the right areas, freeing up budget for high-priority initiatives. It also provides forecasts to align future licence procurement with strategic objectives, avoiding overspending. Armed with data-driven insights, Altron Digital Business also helps organisations negotiate better terms with vendors, ensuring they only pay for what you need and take advantage of available discounts.
Bezuidenhout says: “At Altron Digital Business, we understand that a well-managed technology estate is a strategic asset – one that directly impacts your bottom line, risk profile and ability to innovate. A True-Up Licensing Assessment doesn’t just help businesses save money – it helps create a solid foundation for long-term technology strategy. It benefits organisations through cost optimisation and savings, enabling improved governance and risk management, supporting improved decision-making with data-driven insights and a clear picture of the current estate. It also helps ensure that the technology estate grows in line with the business, improves the accuracy of financial planning and budgeting, and ultimately drives more value from the organisation’s technology spend.”
Bezuidenhout notes that Altron Digital Business doesn’t just run the numbers – it helps organisations interpret the data, identify the opportunities and act on them.
“Altron Digital Business's team brings together licensing expertise, cloud strategy and deep industry knowledge to deliver outcomes that matter by combining decades of expertise in technology and licensing with a customer-first approach that’s focused on delivering real, measurable outcomes. We recognise that each enterprise has unique needs, so our licensing assessments are customised to fit each business’s size, industry and strategic goals. Our team of experts brings in-depth knowledge of licensing models, cloud services and IT governance, ensuring that organisations receive comprehensive, actionable insights. From the initial assessment to ongoing optimisation and strategic guidance, Altron Digital Business is here to help you manage your technology estate and drive value at every stage,” she concludes.
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