How to take back control of your IT ROI

IT budgets in companies have grown consistently in recent years. SaaS licences, cloud infrastructure, integration costs, application maintenance, training… The bill grows heavier with each financial year. Yet when management teams are asked what value these investments have actually generated, the answer is often vague: “we modernised our IS”, “we’re now in line with market standards”, “things run more smoothly”.

But “things run more smoothly” is not a ROI.

This disconnect between spending and perceived value is one of the most frequent warning signs we encounter with our clients. And it is often the symptom of a deeper governance problem.

Why IT costs drift without creating Value

1. No global view of the IT portfolio

In many companies, there is no up-to-date, comprehensive map of the information system. Tools accumulate, contracts auto-renew, unused licences persist. Without an overall picture, it is impossible to identify what is costing money, what is actually being used, and what is genuinely creating value.

2. Decentralised purchasing decisions

With the democratisation of SaaS, every department can now subscribe to solutions without central IT validation. What seems practical at a local level becomes a coherence and cost problem at the global level: functional redundancies, dispersed data, non-negotiated contracts.

3. Value measurement limited to technical metrics

We know what a server costs, how many support tickets were handled, what the application availability rate is. But we do not always measure the real impact on business performance: time savings for teams, error reduction, improved customer experience, faster sales cycles.

4. “Completed” projects that keep on costing

A delivered project is not a closed project. Maintenance, evolution and support costs can represent up to 80% of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an application over its lifetime. These hidden costs are rarely factored into initial business cases.

The gap Between investment and value: a structural problem

We estimate companies lose on average 30% of their IT budget in unoptimised spending: unused licences, application redundancies, abandoned projects.

This figure reflects a reality we regularly encounter in our engagements: not poor technology choices, but an absence of value management over time.

The problem is not so much investing badly as not knowing how to measure what investments actually produce.

How to take back control: 4 concrete lever

Lever 1: Put simple, effective IT governance in place

Create an IT committee bringing together the CIO, business unit heads and senior management, meeting on a regular basis (at least quarterly). The objective: align IT investments with strategic priorities, and ensure that every expenditure is justified by an identifiable business benefit.

Lever 2: Map and rationalise the application portfolio

Inventory all solutions in use, their real costs (licence + integration + maintenance + training), their utilisation rates and their contribution to business processes. This application audit frequently uncovers surprises — and substantial savings.

Lever 3: Define business value indicators

For every IT tool or investment, define from the outset the indicators that will be used to measure value created. These KPIs must be business-oriented — not merely technical — and tracked over time, not only at go-live.

Examples of business value indicators:

• Reduction in process handling time (%)
• Decrease in error rate on a critical operation
• Improvement in customer satisfaction (NPS)
• Hours saved per week per team

Lever 4: Factor in TCO from the procurement stage

Before any acquisition, calculate the total cost of ownership over 3 to 5 years: licence, integration, initial training, change management, maintenance, future developments. This TCO analysis allows you to compare solutions that appear cheaper upfront but are structurally more expensive over time.

The Lùkla approach: aligning technology and performance

At Lùkla, we help mid-market companies bridge the gap between their IT investments and their real business performance. Our approach combines an audit of the existing portfolio, the definition of a rationalised roadmap, and the implementation of management indicators adapted to the organisation’s level of maturity.

Our Apps & Data and Managed Services offerings are designed to optimise operating costs while maintaining — and often improving — service quality.

Conclusion

The question is not “how much are we spending on IT?” but “what value are our IT investments truly creating?” Answering this question requires governance, indicators and management discipline that few mid-market companies have yet formalised. This is precisely where the digital maturity of organisations is determined — and where spending can be transformed into competitive advantage.