Know what every capability costs
Technology spend audit: your annual technology spend mapped to the business capabilities it serves.
Sound familiar?
You know the technology budget to the dollar and have no idea what it buys. The general ledger says "software licences" and "professional services"; it doesn't say "payments", "onboarding" or "regulatory reporting". When a business leader asks what their area's technology costs, the answer takes weeks and three teams, and the next time they ask, it takes weeks again.
What we do
We take a year of technology spend, every invoice, contract, headcount line and project, and map it to the applications it pays for and the business capabilities those applications serve. For banks we use the BIAN business capability model, so the result is comparable across divisions and with peers. For utilities and government we build the model from the organisation's own functions.
The output is one view: each capability, what it costs to run and to change, how many systems serve it, who owns it, and how it compares. In the portfolios we have audited, as much as 85% of spend on shared services such as IT is not aligned to the business strategy, and that is before anyone has looked at duplication. The audit shows you where.
What it has produced
At a global bank, 3,000 applications mapped to 525 capabilities showed an average of six systems per capability, and became the basis of $102M in savings over two years. Technology cost optimisation at a large global bank →
At a North American utility, a total cost of ownership view by department turned a $3M overrun into a budget the company runs itself. IT financial management at a North American utility →
How we'd start
Four to eight weeks, from your general ledger, contract register and application inventory as they are. You get the capability cost model in CO-ASTRA, a ranked list of where the money is, and a recommendation on what to do first.