What if your next technology investment actually reduced your operating costs?
The IT Cost Optimisation Assessment builds a baseline of what your technology costs to run, sizes the levers that bring it down, and sets the measures before anything is bought. Fixed scope and fee. Independent of any vendor.
- First step
- A 45-minute scoping conversation with a partner. Free.
- Format
- Fixed scope and fixed fee, agreed at scoping
- You get
- A four-view cost baseline, sized levers, a 90-day plan, measurement criteria
Spend is rising faster than the value it buys
- 29%
- of cloud spend is wasted, by respondents' own estimate, the first rise in five years. 85% rank managing cloud spend a top challenge.
- Source: Flexera 2026 State of the Cloud Report, March 2026 (750+ cloud decision-makers, global)
- A$192bn
- forecast Australian IT spend in 2027, up 8.7% on 2026. Software (A$68.3bn) and IT services (A$53.2bn) are the largest lines.
- Source: Gartner press release, 16 September 2026
- 36%
- of SaaS licences sit unused on average, across more than 40 million licences and US$75 billion of spend under management.
- Source: Zylo 2026 SaaS Management Index, January 2026 (vendor dataset)
Six signs technology costs more than it should
In the numbers
- Technology spend rises every year and nobody can say which lines earn their place
- Renewals are accepted as they arrive, uplift included
- Three tools do one job because three teams bought them
In the work
- Spreadsheets and re-keying fill the gaps between systems that were never connected
- Approvals added one exception at a time now cost more than the problem they solved
- Licences, support and people go into keeping systems running, with little left to improve them
Baseline, Levers, Prove
- 01
Baseline
Every technology dollar mapped four ways: what it is spent on, who consumes it, which service it buys and which element it runs on.
- 02
Levers
Tactical levers that return money this budget year and structural levers that stop it leaking next year, each sized against the baseline.
- 03
Prove
Measurement criteria agreed before any change, budget tracked against actual, and benchmarks where comparable data exists.
Levers: tactical and structural
Tactical levers act on contracts, licences and capacity and return money inside a budget year. Structural levers change how technology is delivered and governed, which is where recurring waste comes from. Each lever is sized against the baseline and ranked by value and readiness.
- Software and subscriptions
- Reclaim unused licences
- Consolidate tools that do one job
- Right-size tiers and seats
- Cloud
- Match capacity to use
- Commit where usage is steady
- Modernise the largest bills
- Contracts
- Renegotiate at renewal
- Third-party maintenance where it fits
- Payment terms
- Infrastructure
- Retire idle hardware
- Network and telecoms rates
- Automation
- Re-keying and reconciliation
- Workflow over spreadsheets
- Operating model
- Product-centric teams
- One owner for technology spend
- Delivery
- Lean delivery
- A simpler service catalogue
- Sourcing
- Fewer suppliers
- Location and resourcing mix
Prove: measured against the baseline, on criteria agreed first
Before any change is made, the assessment sets the measurement criteria with you: which costs are in scope, the period they are measured over, and how a reduction is counted when it lands. Budget is then tracked against actual, line by line, and benchmarked where comparable data exists. A change that cannot be measured against the baseline is not counted as a saving.
Our approach
Assess
- Inventory licences, subscriptions, cloud, support contracts and the people-time spent around systems
- Build the four-view baseline from your ledger, contracts and bills
- Interview the owners of the largest cost lines and the teams who work around the systems
- Benchmark unit costs where comparable data exists
Report
- Opportunities sized against the baseline, tactical and structural
- Levers ranked by value and readiness, quick wins separated
- A 90-day plan with named owners
- Measurement criteria for every change on the plan
From first conversation to roadmap
The first conversation is free. The assessment is a fixed scope and fee agreed at the end of it.
- 1
Scoping conversation
Forty-five minutes with a Kode-1 partner: what you spend, where you think it hides, who owns the budget, and what the assessment would examine.
- 2
Data request
The ledger extract, contracts, cloud and licence bills, and a short working session with your finance and technology leads.
- 3
Baseline and levers
The four-view baseline, the lever analysis and the benchmarks, with owners interviewed as the numbers come together.
- 4
Report and roadmap
Findings, sized opportunities, the 90-day plan and the measurement criteria, walked through with your leadership team.
Start with the baseline.
Forty-five minutes with a Kode-1 partner on what you spend, where it hides and what the assessment would examine. A partner replies within one business day.
Why get in touch
- No software to sell you
Kode-1 is an advisory firm. A saving is never a reason to buy something of ours, and the recommendation is tested against your numbers.
- The partner you meet does the work
Senior people throughout, from the first conversation to the roadmap. No handover to a leveraged team.
- Measured, not asserted
Measurement criteria are agreed before any change, so every saving on the plan can be checked against the baseline.
Frequently asked questions
Against a baseline agreed with you before any change: the costs in scope, the period they are measured over, and how a reduction is counted. Changes that cannot be measured against the baseline are not claimed as savings.
No. A figure before we have seen your numbers would be a guess. What we commit to is a baseline you can check, a plan ranked by value, and measurement criteria agreed before the work starts.
The scoping conversation is free. The assessment is a fixed fee, agreed at the end of that conversation and sized to the scope you choose.
No. Kode-1 is an advisory firm. Where we partner with a platform for delivery it is published on this site, and a recommendation is never contingent on it.
A sponsor who owns the technology budget, a finance contact, and access to the ledger extract, contracts and bills. The scoping conversation needs none of that.
It stays with the partner you work with and is used only to build your baseline. We sign your non-disclosure agreement before any data is shared.