What a Technology Audit Covers
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What an audit is for
Most businesses accumulate technology rather than choosing it. A tool here for one problem, another there for a department, an integration built by a contractor who left. After five years nobody has the whole picture, and decisions get made on fragments.
An audit produces the whole picture in a week. It is not a sales exercise for a rebuild; about half the recommendations that come out of ours cost nothing to implement.
The systems inventory
- Every system in use, including the ones a single department bought
- What each one costs, per month and per year, and when it renews
- Who administers it, and who else has admin rights
- How many licences are paid for versus actually used
- What data lives in it, and whether it is the only copy
The licence line reliably surprises people. It is common to find 15–30% of seats paid for and unused, often for staff who left. That alone frequently pays for the audit several times over.
The integration map
A diagram of how data actually moves between systems — including the parts that move because a person copies them. Those manual hops get drawn in a different colour, and the diagram is usually the moment a leadership team understands the problem.
One client's map had eleven systems and nine arrows. Six of the nine were a human being with two windows open.
The risk register
- Single points of failure. Systems only one person can administer, and undocumented processes only one person understands.
- Untested backups. Almost every business has backups. Very few have ever restored one, which means they have a hypothesis rather than a backup.
- Unsupported software. The version that stopped receiving security updates in 2023 and quietly still runs the warehouse.
- Access that outlived its purpose. Former staff, former contractors, shared logins with the password on a whiteboard.
- Data with no owner. Something important in a personal account rather than a company one.
The cost review
| Category | What we look for | Typical finding |
|---|---|---|
| Licences | Paid vs active seats | 15–30% waste |
| Overlap | Two tools doing one job | One or two duplicates |
| Hosting | Over-provisioned infrastructure | Often 40%+ headroom |
| Manual effort | Hours spent moving data | 5–20 hours/week |
| Renewals | Auto-renewing contracts | At least one nobody remembered |
What you get, and what it costs
A written report: the inventory, the map, the risk register with severities, the cost findings and a prioritised list of recommendations split into “free”, “cheap” and “a project”.
It takes about a week and needs perhaps four hours of your team's time. We charge for it as a standalone engagement, and we credit the fee against a build if you commission one within three months. The report is yours regardless, including if you use it to hire someone else.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need access to our systems?
Will this turn into a sales pitch?
How long does it take?
Can you audit our code as well as our systems?
Not sure which part of the business to fix first?
A 30-minute call and a process walkthrough is usually enough for us to say where the money is. There is no charge and no follow-up sequence.
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