Personal Subscription Management and Corporate SaaS Management Have the Exact Same Structure

As a result of promoting DX, the number of internal SaaS contracts is increasing year by year.

We introduced them because they were necessary. That is a fact.

However, when the accounting department reports that 'IT-related monthly costs have increased by 30% year-on-year,' it is difficult to immediately provide a list of all contracts.

This is not just a corporate issue.

With personal subscriptions, too, when I look at the total amount on my credit card statement, I am sometimes surprised, thinking, 'I was paying this much?'

Whether it is a company or a household, although the scale is different, the structure of 'invisible fixed costs gradually expanding' is the same.

In this article, I will organize my thoughts on this 'subscription inventory.'

Hello, this is Shinlog.
I write on note every day, hoping that it will be useful for those struggling with DX and management issues.

It may look like a story about cost reduction, but the essence is a story about the yardstick of 'what criteria to use to judge necessity.'

What should be cut is not the 'service,' but the 'lack of judgment criteria.'

The first thing people tend to do when reviewing subscriptions is to make a list of 'which ones to cancel.' However, I rarely hear of examples where this went well.

If you start sorting without judgment criteria, the staff will say 'we are using everything,' and management will reply 'cut something',.

The cause of this mismatch is that the definition of 'using' differs from person to person.

What should be decided first is not the services to cut, but the criteria for the services to keep.

Usage frequency, availability of alternatives, and contract type.

If you have these three axes, you can have conversations based on data rather than emotional arguments.

30 to 51% of licenses are unused

According to multiple surveys in 2025, among the SaaS licenses purchased by companies, 30 to 51% are unused or not fully utilized.

Large companies use nearly 100 SaaS applications on average, and a significant number of them are 'contracted but no one is logged in.'

Even so, it is said within the company that 'everything is necessary.'

The true nature of this gap is that the distinction between "using" and "utilizing" has not been clarified.

If you conduct an inventory while leaving this unaddressed, the discussion will just go in circles.

"It might be a problem if I cut it" is a valid concern.

The biggest reason why inventory management doesn't progress is not cost or effort.

It is the anxiety of "what if the team struggles as a result of cutting it?".

Especially if it is a service you advocated for introducing as part of a DX initiative, it is hard to admit that it was actually unnecessary.

That feeling itself is natural.

There is also the circumstance that you cannot act immediately because you have signed an annual contract.

However, what lies ahead if you continue to "just keep it for now" is a future where fixed costs squeeze your budget.

If accounts of departed employees remain active, you are also leaving security risks unaddressed.

Postponing inventory is not just postponing costs, but also postponing risks. This cannot be overlooked.

Three perspectives for creating judgment criteria

Let's organize the perspectives into three points.

1. Distinguish between "using" and "utilizing"

Can you say you are "using" it if you only log in once a month?

If you are subscribed to a premium plan but only using basic features, you can lower costs just by reviewing the plan.

Having a tool is different from mastering it.

2. Treat automatic renewal of annual contracts as "abandoning judgment"

Automatic renewal is convenient, but on the flip side, it also means you are "giving up the opportunity to review the contract yourself."

Just by setting a calendar alert 90 days before renewal, you create an opportunity for inventory once a year.

3. Organizations that can 'subtract' are the ones that advance DX

It is often misunderstood that introducing new tools is what DX is about, but being able to decide what to remove is far more difficult and much healthier.

The number of tools is not proportional to work results.

The fact that an increase in tools leads to the problem of 'not knowing where information is' is something already felt as a reality on the front lines.

What to do first

I will narrow down the specific inventory actions to three.

• Step 1: List all services.
  Go back through three months of expense reimbursement data and write down all monthly and annual payments. At this point, you will find at least one thing you didn't realize you were still subscribed to.
  

• Step 2: Sort by 'last login date'.
  Check the last login date for each user from the management screen and identify accounts that have not been used for over a month.
  

• Step 3: Put contract renewal dates on the calendar.
  Check the renewal dates for all annual contracts and set a reminder for 90 days prior. This alone will eliminate accidents where things are 'automatically renewed'.

'Having' a management system is the first step. Taking inventory of subscriptions is the act of judging 'what is truly necessary'.

Organizing the tools that have increased due to DX promotion is not a step backward, but a transition from the 'just install it' phase to the 'master it' phase.

As a result, costs will also go down, but that is a byproduct, not the goal.

Whether it's company items or personal ones, start by writing everything down. Once you have a yardstick, the decision-making process will naturally begin.

If you think, 'We are in the same situation,' please open your list of subscriptions and SaaS today.

That is the easiest and most effective way to start taking inventory.

That is all for this time. Thank you for reading this far.