Technology spending has reached a tipping point for many SMEs. What began as a way to modernise operations has become a sprawling ecosystem of licences, SaaS subscriptions, cloud platforms, and managed services. For too many organisations, the result is spiralling costs, overlapping systems, and disappointing returns on investment.
The problem isn’t a lack of commitment to digital transformation. The real issue is that ICT decisions are being made without the structure of a business case. Purchases are reactive, vendor-driven, and rarely evaluated against strategic outcomes.
Technology waste doesn’t always show up on the balance sheet in obvious ways. It is hidden in licences that go unused, in cloud capacity left running overnight, and in redundant applications scattered across different departments.
- Licence Creep: As teams grow and change, accounts accumulate. Vendors are quick to sell additional seats but slow to encourage rightsizing.
- SaaS Sprawl: Multiple departments independently sign up for tools, leading to silos and duplicated functionality.
- Over-Engineering: SMEs often buy “enterprise” packages with advanced features that remain untouched.
- Opaque Billing Models: Cloud providers present services as flexible and cost-efficient, but their pricing is structured to encourage overconsumption.
These silent leaks create a situation where SMEs believe they are investing wisely, yet 30–40% of their ICT spend is wasted.
Discounts, bundles, and “limited-time offers” are a staple of vendor marketing. Yet what looks like a saving often results in overspend.
- Bundled Waste: A package discount includes products you don’t need.
- Contractual Lock-In: Reduced rates are tied to long contracts that reduce flexibility.
- Psychological Anchors: Vendors inflate list prices so discounts appear more generous than they are.
SMEs, lacking dedicated procurement expertise, are especially vulnerable to these tactics. The short-term saving blinds decision-makers to long-term costs.
Nothing drains an ICT budget faster than redundant systems. In audits conducted by ICT Broker, we routinely find SMEs paying for:
- Two or three CRMs used by different departments.
- Parallel communication tools (Teams, Slack, WhatsApp).
- Multiple cloud storage platforms (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox).
This creates financial waste and operational friction. Employees waste time switching between tools, data becomes fragmented, and reporting becomes unreliable.
By consolidating and integrating systems, SMEs not only save money but also enhance efficiency and data integrity.
A business case provides the discipline needed to ensure that ICT investments are aligned with organisational goals. Every potential purchase should answer three questions:
- What business problem are we solving?
- How will we measure ROI and adoption success?
- What are the risks if we do nothing?
With these questions answered, SMEs protect themselves from vendor-driven decisions and ensure that technology supports strategy rather than distracts from it.
Cloud was meant to democratise technology spending. Instead, it has created a new category of financial risk: budget drift. Unused test environments, over-provisioned resources, and consumption-based billing can cause monthly invoices to spiral.
Practical steps to regain control include:
- Rightsizing workloads to match actual usage.
- Quarterly audits to identify waste.
- Negotiating reserved capacity only when demand is predictable.
At ICT Broker, we help SMEs design cloud governance frameworks that make spend predictable, transparent, and justified.
Every SaaS application introduces security and compliance obligations. Shadow IT — where employees adopt tools outside official procurement, multiplies this risk.
SMEs must maintain a SaaS register, enforce access control policies, and align with relevant regulations (GDPR, POPIA). Without governance, even small oversights can escalate into reputational or legal crises.
ICT is not just about cost control, it’s about enablement. The real value comes when tools work together to create integrated workflows and actionable reporting.
Yet too often, leaders are overwhelmed by a flood of disconnected reports. True ICT strategy means:
- Unifying data flows across systems.
- Automating meaningful reporting.
- Measuring only what drives business outcomes, not vanity metrics.
ICT Broker exists to solve these problems for SMEs. As an independent advisor, we are not tied to vendor incentives. Our role is to optimise, not oversell.
Our methodology includes:
- Landscape Assessment – Mapping existing systems and costs.
- Optimisation – Identifying redundancy and inefficiency.
- Procurement Support – Negotiating from a position of independence.
- Implementation Oversight – Ensuring adoption and ROI.
Where vendors push complexity, we create clarity. Where vendors lock you in, we ensure flexibility.
Technology should never be a financial drain, it should be a strategic asset. For SMEs, the path to smarter ICT spending lies in adopting a business-case-first approach: questioning every purchase, measuring ROI, and integrating tools into a coherent strategy.
If you’d like ICT Broker to conduct an independent audit of your ICT environment or support your next procurement decision, reach out at info@ictbroker.co.za.