Introduction to Spend Management with Pleo

Welcome to our comprehensive guide to IT and software spend management. In this guide, we’ll delve into all you need to know about managing your IT and software spend. We’ll cover what IT and software spend management is and outline all the most important aspects of IT and software spend management.

In dedicated articles below, we’ll explore the importance and benefits of managing your IT and software spend effectively – and the tips and best practices you need to do just that.

What is IT & software spend management?

IT and software spend management is the process of tracking, analysing and optimising the financial resources a business or organisation allocates to IT and software.

It’s about keeping on top of all expenses related to:

• Hardware
• Software
• Cloud services
• IT support
• Licensing
• Subscriptions

Put simply, IT and software spend management aims to ensure all of these assets align with your strategic goals, help improve efficiency and reduce waste within your organisation.

When done right, IT and software spend management helps you optimise your tech investments, control your costs and ensure you’re getting the most value for your money.

Just as any other management process, however, IT and software spend management comes with its challenges. In some organisations, for instance, IT budgets aren’t centralised, but instead managed by individual departments. This can cause a variety of issues, including poor spending decisions, duplicated software purchases and missed opportunities for savings.

Individually, these hiccups might not be the end of the world. Collectively, however, they can do a number on your resources over time. That’s why it’s so important to stay on top of your IT and software management to – and that’s exactly what we’re here to help you do.

To give you a thorough understanding of IT and software management and equip you with the knowledge you need to stay in control of your IT and software spend, we’ve created this guide to walk you through all you need to know.

We’ll cover the following topics:

1. IT asset management (ITAM)
2. IT governance
3. SaaS management
4. Cloud cost optimisation

Below, you’ll find a brief overview of each topic in our guide. We’ll dive deeper into each topic in the individual articles dedicated to them. Let’s get started.

The ultimate guide to IT & software spend management

1. IT asset management (ITAM)

IT asset management is the process (ITAM) of optimising the lifecycle of a company’s IT assets – e.g. hardware and software, network infrastructure and other tech-related resources.

Effective ITAM makes your tech management smoother, more secure and more cost effective – and that’s why it’s important to do it right.

To get the most out of your ITAM, you’ll want to:

• Keep an updated inventory
• Centralise your asset data
• Automate where you can
• Run regular audits
• Involve multiple teams

Together, these best practices will help you stay on top of your assets, avoid surprises and get the most out of your tech investments.

IT asset management: What is it, and how’s it done?