Managing IT budgets has never been more complex—or wasteful. In a recent Block 64 Market Survey of 250 midsized enterprise IT leaders across North America, a disconcerting trend emerged: organizations are losing significant portions of their IT budgets to waste.
From underused SaaS licenses to over-provisioned cloud infrastructure, these inefficiencies are costing companies millions every year.
The issue goes beyond just SaaS sprawl. IT leaders must address waste across all categories of technology spend to unlock real savings in 2025.
Here’s a breakdown of the challenges—and opportunities—awaiting IT leaders as they take control of their budgets.
The State of IT Budget Waste
The numbers speak for themselves: IT organizations are leaving money on the table across all major ITAM categories. According to Block 64’s survey:
- 33% of respondents estimate wasting 10% of their IT budget on underused software and SaaS licenses.
- 46% say they waste 25%.
- Even more striking, 17% report wasting half their software and SaaS budget or more.
Hardware and cloud infrastructure fare no better:
- Nearly 45% of IT leaders admit to wasting 10% of their budgets on these categories.
- An additional 36% say they waste 25% of their IT budget, while 14.8% acknowledge losing 50% or more.
The trend aligns with external research. Gartner reports that organizations lose an average of 25% of their SaaS budgets to unused entitlements and overlapping tools. At the same time, cloud spending inefficiencies account for up to 35% in wasted costs, further draining resources.
While organizations are wasting more of their IT budgets each year, they are also spending more overall. According to the Block 64 report, 94% of IT leaders expect their IT budgets will increase over the next three to five years, amplifying the urgency to address inefficiencies and optimize spending.
SaaS and Cloud Costs Are Only Part of the Problem
While SaaS receives plenty of attention, it represents just 12% of total IT spending for midsize enterprises, according to Gartner. Other categories, such as hardware, on-premise software, and cloud infrastructure, make up 39% of IT budgets. Yet these areas often lack the same scrutiny, perhaps because they are less novel than SaaS, leaving major savings untapped.
This disparity raises an important question: do IT leaders truly have a handle on their IT spending?
In the Block 64 survey, 87% of respondents claimed to have sufficient visibility into their IT consumption across software, hardware, and cloud. However, visibility doesn’t always translate into action. In reality, only 58% of organizations actively manage all three categories. Among the remaining 42% who don’t manage all categories, the gaps are striking:
- Just 25% actively manage cloud assets.
- Only 21% actively manage hardware.
- And 35% manage software.
This contradiction highlights a critical challenge: while IT leaders believe they understand their consumption, significant gaps in management leave inefficiencies unaddressed, driving unnecessary costs and risks. To tackle these inefficiencies, IT leaders must adopt more robust IT asset management strategies that encompass all areas of spend—not just SaaS.
Opportunities for IT Leaders in 2025
The good news? IT leaders recognize the potential to turn these challenges into opportunities. According to Block 64’s survey, the top-ranked opportunities for the year ahead include:
- Improving security footprints (46%).
- Increasing cost savings (40%).
- Gaining better visibility into IT assets (37%).
These opportunities reveal a growing awareness among IT leaders about the importance of holistic IT asset management. By adopting platforms like Block 64, organizations can gain complete visibility into SaaS, hardware, cloud, and on-premise assets.
As IT budgets continue to grow, so does the potential for waste. The data is clear: midsize enterprises that fail to centrally manage their IT assets risk overspending by 25% or more each year. The time for action is now.
About Block 64: Block 64 helps businesses gain control of ITAM spending with its hybrid IT asset management platform. Start your free trial to gain actionable insights into SaaS, software and hardware usage, risks and savings opportunities, today.
