Software
Sometimes you do not need new software. You need the software you already pay for to work.
Most companies past a certain size are paying for capability they already own twice and using neither properly. The audit is where that becomes visible.
What is a software stack audit?
A software stack audit is a complete inventory of the systems a company pays for — cost, usage, overlap, integration and contract position — assessed against what the business actually needs. The outcome is a ranked list of what to keep, fix, consolidate, replace or cancel. CompanyWRX runs this as a standalone engagement because the findings frequently pay for it.
What the work involves
- Inventory everything: every subscription, every license, every seat, including the ones expensed quietly by a department.
- Establish what each system is actually used for, by asking the people using it rather than reading the sales page.
- Find the overlap — the capability you are paying for twice, and the module you already own and never switched on.
- Check what is integrated, what is bridged by a person re-typing data, and what silently is not connected at all.
- Review contracts, renewal dates and seat counts against real usage.
What you hold afterward
- A complete inventory with annual cost against each system.
- A ranked set of recommendations — keep, fix, consolidate, replace, cancel — with the saving and the effort beside each.
- The integration map, including every place a person is currently the integration.
Sometimes you need new software. Sometimes you just need the software you already pay for to work correctly.
When this is the wrong thing to buy
If you already know exactly which system is the problem and simply want it replaced, this is more diagnosis than you need. Say so and we will go straight to the replacement decision.
Questions
Software stack audit, in practice.
Will you recommend your own software?
Only where it genuinely fits, and the report says plainly when a recommendation is ours. Most of the findings in a typical audit are about systems you already own — that is the point of running it.
How long does an audit take?
It is driven by how many systems there are and how easy it is to get at billing and usage data. The inventory is usually the slow part, because some of it is on a personal card.
What if the answer is to keep everything?
Then that is the answer, and you will have an integration map and a documented stack you did not have before. It is a rarer outcome than you would expect.
Where this usually leads
This rarely arrives on its own.
You pay for eleven systems and your team still keeps the real numbers in a spreadsheet.
If the outcome is what you are after
- Reduce software costsNobody in the company can produce a complete list of what you pay for monthly, and several subscriptions are on somebody’s personal card.
- Modernize a businessThe business runs well and looks like it did in 2014. Customers ask questions the website should have answered, and your team keeps a spreadsheet because the system cannot do it.
Usually done alongside
- Software integrationConnecting the systems you already run so data moves between them automatically — instead of a person re-typing it from one screen into another.
- Custom softwareInternal applications, customer and employee portals, dashboards and mobile apps — built only when buying, configuring or integrating genuinely will not do the job.
- Operations consultingFinding what is actually getting in the way — by following the work, talking to the people doing it, and fixing what can be fixed immediately.
Not sure this is your problem?That is usually the most useful thing to find out first.
Answer thirteen questions about how your company actually runs and get a reading on each area — brand, website, search, reviews, software, automation, payments, operations, people, data and continuity.
Typically owner-led companies from first idea to around 500 people.