Silent Leaks, Sinking Profits: The Hidden Tech Waste Costing You Thousands
- Brandon Alsup
- Aug 12
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 24
No matter how sharp your finance team is, tech waste still manages to sneak in—and quietly drain your profits.
Recently, Travis Alsup, Kosh's CEO, was at an industry conference heard a story about a company reviewing their monthly financials when something jumped out: EBITDA wasn’t looking as strong as usual. (If you’re not a CFO, here’s the quick version: EBITDA measures how well your business is making money from operations. If it dips, it usually means some cost is creeping up.) The leader of this organization did what financially savvy leaders do—he started digging.
And sure enough, he found the culprit: a remote monitoring tool that had been replaced months ago. The license was still active. Still being paid for. Still bleeding cash.
That one line item accounted for almost $10K in waste. But it wasn’t the only one.
Kosh has seen examples of this within our own organization. One that comes to mind was a video editing tool we’d held onto for years—just in case. The license wasn’t expensive, and we’d locked in a great legacy rate. But here’s the thing: we never used it. Every year the renewal came up, and every year we thought, maybe we’ll start using it. We never did. Finally, we canceled it—and no one noticed.
Unfortunately, this kind of waste is common and there's a good chance it’s happening in your organization too.
Why Tech Waste Happens (and Why It’s So Hard to Spot)
Software and licensing waste isn’t like a broken copier or a lost laptop. It doesn’t scream for attention. It just sits quietly on the balance sheet—month after month—chipping away at profitability.
Here’s why it slips through:
Tool sprawl – Over time, your teams test and adopt new tools without always decommissioning the old ones.
Departmental silos – Finance isn’t always looped in when IT, marketing, or operations sign up for tools.
Auto-renew traps – Many licenses renew automatically and are hard to cancel without advance notice.
Lack of ownership – Who’s responsible for pruning tools no longer in use? In most orgs, no one is.
Fear of regret – Some tools stay in the budget just because someone might use them again. That’s not strategy—that’s sunk cost fallacy.
Examples of Tech Waste We’ve Seen (or Caught Ourselves)
Over-licensing Microsoft 365
Paying for Business Premium when most of your users only need Basic or Standard. If 20 staff each have a $22/month license instead of the $6/month version they actually use, that’s $3,840 per year wasted. We help clients right-size their Microsoft 365 licensing to avoid this exact issue.
Ballooning Cloud Storage
Old project files, video archives, and backups that no one’s touched in years—still getting billed. Cloud storage creep is real, especially with tools like SharePoint, Dropbox, or AWS. If you're not actively managing your storage limits, the costs quietly compound. Our cloud services team helps ensure you're only paying for what you need.
The "Just in Case" Subscription
That CRM software with a discount grandfathered license you renew every year because, "maybe we’ll use it". Spoiler: you won’t. Cut it. We had a legacy video tool that cost under $300/year. It didn’t seem like much—but we hadn’t used it in years. It finally got cut. No one noticed.
Duplicated Tools Across Departments
Two departments paying for two versions of the same kind of tool (like project management or password managers), because no one standardized. You don’t need both Trello and Asana if everyone’s doing the same work.
Tools with Hidden Operational Costs You Don't Want to Cut
Some licenses may look unnecessary, but cutting them can have serious implications. These include:
Unified Threat Management (UTM) firewalls – not visible day-to-day, but essential for layered security.
DNS filtering tools– protect your users from accessing malicious websites.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) platforms – they may be an added line item, but reduce the risk of credential theft dramatically.
Security awareness training software – not always appreciated until a phishing test gets passed (or failed).
These tools are foundational to your cybersecurity stack—cutting them could leave you exposed.
Why This Matters: The EBITDA Connection
EBITDA is one of the clearest ways to understand your operational health. Investors love it. Bankers rely on it. And smart operators track it like a hawk.
Every unnecessary tool, unused license, or redundant service eats away at EBITDA because it increases your operating expenses without generating value. The lower your EBITDA, the less room you have to:
Reinvest in your team
Weather downturns
Improve margins
Attract capital or buyers
Let waste run unchecked, and even a high-revenue business can look unhealthy.
How to Catch Tech Waste: A Simple Audit Framework
At Kosh, we perform tech waste audits for current customers and prospective customers during discovery (IT Roadmaps). It’s one of the fastest ways we help unlock value.
Here’s how we recommend you do it:
Start with your general ledger.
Pull 12 months of spending data. Look at everything under software, SaaS, cloud services, and tech-related vendors. Flag recurring charges.
Sort by size—but don’t ignore the small stuff.
Yes, start with big-ticket tools. But even $30/month tools add up. 10 of those is $3,600/year.
Ask: “Are we still using this?”
Talk to department heads. No one using it? Cancel. If it’s mission-critical but underused, maybe it’s time to train or replace.
Use AI to highlight anomalies.
AI tools can help spot duplicate vendors and weird spikes in your software spend — giving you an extra pair of eyes.
Don’t stop at tech.
Look at everything: marketing automation tools no one checks, event platforms you’ve outgrown, or HR tools replaced by new payroll systems.
How Kosh Keeps Our Clients Lean
Kosh conducts regular check-ins with clients. One of the items on our checklist: Are you using what you're paying for? If not, we cut it, right-size it, or recommend a more efficient alternative. It's a small part of what we do—but one with big bottom-line results.
This mindset isn’t just about saving money. It’s about clarity, accountability, and building an organization that can grow without leaking cash.
Next Steps for Your Organization
Review your tech spend from the last 12 months. Don’t wait for year-end.
Assign ownership. Someone should be responsible for identifying and eliminating waste.
Run a waste audit. Or call us. We’ll help.
You don’t need a complex financial system to stop wasting money. You just need to look.
We’ve helped 100+ businesses plug these profit leaks—if you want to see what’s hiding in your invoices, we’re here to help. Contact us at: sales@koshsolutions.com or submit a form to get started.
Kosh offers tech waste audits as part of our managed services onboarding process—and the results might surprise you.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this communication is intended for limited use for informational purposes only. It is not considered professional advice; instead, it is general information that may or may not apply to specific situations. Each case is unique and should be evaluated on its own by a professional qualified to provide advice specifically intended to protect your individual situation. Kosh is not liable for improper use of this information.