Tech bills are growing, and technology expense management can help keep costs under control. With growing investments in cybersecurity, cloud services, and AI, it’s not easy to manage these costs as they come in. 

Companies need to make every dollar count, especially with inflation weighing on budgets. That’s why 60% of CISOs want to consolidate and optimize their tools by 2025. The best way to handle this in 2025 is through technology expense management, simplifying costs and maximizing value.

What is Technology Expense Management?

Technology expense management refers to managing the costs related to cloud, mobile, and telecom services. What makes expense management important? It offers businesses a clearer view of their tech spending, which helps cut back on waste and optimize resource use.

As per SNS Insider, technology expense management is part of a larger expense management market that is projected to hit $13.15 billion by 2030. As demand for more expense tracking and management rises, businesses are awakening to the value of centralizing tech for spending management and tracking.

That’s why the technology expense management market is growing fast, with a 10.2% compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2030. Thanks to the growing reliance on telecom services and the demand for more intelligent cost management, it’s expected to top $6.7 billion by 2030.

Many teams, from IT to finance and procurement, need technology expense management to control their technology budgets. It helps track costs like cloud subscriptions, accounting software licenses, telecom bills, and IT infrastructure.

What Are the Best Technology Expense Management Best Practices?

In 2025, companies must adopt strategic practices to manage their technology expenses. Keep reading for some best practices. Here’s how to manage your IT budget.

1. Start with Cloud Cost Optimization

Cloud services can quickly eat into your budget. Don’t let them. Reduce costs by eliminating unused apps, consolidating licenses, and fine-tuning configurations. 

According to Gartner’s 2024 Cloud Spending Insights, a survey of 200 IT leaders showed that 69% of organizations went over budget on cloud spending in 2023. However, 31% of those who stayed within budget did so by monitoring spending and resource use. 

 

Optimizing your services can help you manage cloud costs. Expense management software like Cimpl Cloud was developed to simplify this process with an all-in-one solution. It offers cost controls, actionable insights, and over 600 best practice checks—more than native tools offer. This helps you maximize ROI and keep costs in check.

2. Simplify Mobile Device Management

Mobile device costs can add up if they’re not carefully managed. A Samsung report by Oxford Economics shows that a 250-employee company, for instance, could spend over $1,200 per employee annually on devices, connectivity, management, and software. As Forbes points out, businesses still need to monitor mobile costs even with an unlimited data plan.

Larger organizations can cut costs through economies of scale. For a 10,000-employee company, the cost drops to around $800 per employee annually. The larger the organization, the greater the potential for cost savings. However, even large organizations can waste resources without a solid mobile device management strategy. 

Simplifying mobile device management helps control these costs. A solid policy, paired with MDM solutions, identifies any inefficiencies. Upland Cimpl makes handling inventory, invoices, and cost allocation easier. Cimpl offers end-user support for hardware, apps, and MDM connectivity.

3. Optimize Your Telecom Services

Telecom services like mobile data plans and traditional landlines are often overused or underutilized. While regular audits shed light on waste, technology expense management can help you make the most of telecom services. 

Switching to alternatives like SD-WAN is one way to reduce costs. Palo Alto Networks found that organizations saved over 90% on WAN hardware and connectivity costs at remote sites, totalling $6.04 million in three years. 

Nemertes echoed this by revealing that switching from MPLS to SD-WAN, which uses internet links instead of more expensive MPLS connections, can save companies millions on their WAN service bills.

However, the real challenge is maintaining these savings. Upland Cimpl can help with automation features that simplify telecom expense management. It offers 250+ integrations to track usage and ensure telecom transactions align with your needs. Cimpl ensures you get the most value from your telecom investments.

4. Automate Your Invoice Processing

Manually processing invoices takes time and is prone to mistakes, which is why the need for automation is only growing. 

The invoice automation software market was valued at nearly $3.4 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $8.9 billion by 2031. This shows why so many companies are turning to automation.

Automating invoice processing saves time and reduces errors. It also improves financial tracking and gives businesses better control over cash flow. Upland Cimpl’s automation features simplify processing by shortening invoice lifecycle timeframes. This speeds up payments and improves financial reporting for month-end, quarter-end, and year-end processes.

5. Cut Down on Redundant Software

Applications can pile up quickly. They aren’t always useful, leading to idle, unused licenses and software. This only becomes more complicated as apps multiply. Statista notes that between 2015 and 2024, the number of SaaS apps companies used grew, and it’s likely to keep rising in 2025, too.

As a result, employees spend up to 22% of their time switching between tools, as pointed out by Pega. This takes time away from high-value work. Worse, 42% of businesses admit they’re paying for underused tech. 

Consolidating software tools helps businesses cut unnecessary costs and prioritize productivity. For example, if your finance team has accounting software that doesn’t offer what they need – get rid of it. Explore alternatives that can do everything your finance team needs, from tracking payments to receipts and expense claims.

Expense management software like Upland Cimpl clearly shows software usage across departments. It lets you quickly identify redundant tools and optimize spending, cutting waste and ensuring every tool works toward your goals.

6. Use AI to Track and Optimize Spending

Artificial intelligence is reshaping corporate budgeting. EY shared that Caterpillar Inc.‘s use of machine learning, for example, cut quarterly forecasting time from three weeks to 30 minutes. Moreover, The Wall Street Journal reported that Novelis Inc.’s CFO uses machine learning for cash-flow forecasting.

These examples offer a small window into AI’s impact. They also support Gartner’s prediction that by 2028, 50% of organizations will use AI to replace time-consuming budget forecasting.

This money adds up, too. Google notes that 74% of organizations already see ROI from generative AI. Of those using AI in production, 86% expect at least 6% revenue growth, proving that AI’s potential is already being realized.

With Upland Cimpl, businesses can use AI-powered analytics to gain insights into tech expenses. It identifies inefficiencies and automates tech spending optimization. Companies stay on budget and manage expenses with smarter, data-driven decisions.

7. Follow IT Assets from Start to Finish

Gartner points out that CIOs often hear IT is too expensive, even after improving efficiency. It’s easy to see why – IT costs continue to rise yearly. Gartner also predicts global IT spending will hit $5.75 trillion in 2025, a 9.3% jump from the previous year.

Tracking the entire lifecycle of IT assets – from procurement to disposal – allows businesses to control these costs. Remember, though, that on top of fixed costs, unforeseen costs are bound to crop up. Businesses risk overpaying and missing opportunities to optimize without tracking asset usage.

Upland Cimpl syncs with IT service management systems like ServiceNow to give you complete visibility into IT assets and inventory. It offers insights in real-time into the total cost of ownership, which helps you manage IT costs and avoid costly mistakes.

8. Negotiate Better Vendor Deals

Vendor contracts typically offer better terms, but these are often missed. To avoid this, 61% of businesses are already simplifying their technology stacks by partnering with reliable vendors.

The goal is to reduce vendor complexity. This way, businesses can focus on negotiating better deals and managing costs more effectively. However, knowing where you might be overpaying is challenging without the right tools.

And if you’re looking into technology expense management (TEM) software, check out Upland Cimpl. It helps manage inventory, vendors, and contracts, giving you visibility to drive telecom cost savings.

9. Use Predictive Analytics for Cost Forecasting

Predictive analytics changes the way we plan for technology costs. It identifies trends that can help you prepare for what your business needs down the line, like software upgrades or cloud storage, by analyzing past data. The end goal is better budgeting and fewer surprise costs. 

As a result, businesses can stay ahead of their IT needs. You can optimize resource allocation and align IT investments with your goals. Predictive analytics helps avoid budget overruns and ensures technology investments drive long-term growth.

However, it’s challenging to go it alone. Top public and private sector organizations use expense management software like Upland Cimpl. This software uses predictive analytics to improve cost forecasting, helping businesses better manage their budgets.

10. Keep an Eye on Service Usage

According to Zylo, organizations use only about half of their SaaS licenses, leaving the rest unused. This often happens when employees exit or change roles and their licenses aren’t updated. Some applications also fail to gain the expected level of use or adoption.

Businesses burn through resources as a result. The average company loses $18 million annually on unused licenses, a figure that’s risen by 7% year-over-year. For larger enterprises, the waste can climb to $127 million.

Real-time monitoring helps businesses get the most out of the services they use. Resources that aren’t fully utilized can be scaled down or eliminated to save time and costs. This insight helps reduce waste and ensure resources are used to the best of their abilities.

Upland Cimpl‘s real-time analytics and dashboards make it easy to monitor service usage. There’s no room for hidden business expenses – it offers a single platform to keep your team on top of all the transactions coming their way.

11. Create a Strong Budget Control System

Tech costs are climbing, and businesses need to keep up. For example, Thomson Reuters reported that in 2024, law firm expenses jumped by over 5%, largely due to technology and generative AI. This is just one example pointing to the spike in tech expenses.

As AI improves output, clients may push for lower rates, making cost control and compliance even more critical. To stay ahead, set clear spending limits, analyze usage, keep receipts, and automate alerts to ensure compliance and prevent overspending.

Expense management software like Upland Cimpl can help keep your business expenses in check. It lets companies manage expenditures by setting and monitoring spending limits and triggering alerts when payments exceed thresholds. 

12. Automate Your Financial Operations

CFO Drive reports that a 20-person finance team can lose up to $124,800 annually due to tasks like manual data entry. Automation solves this. It optimizes the expense management process with tasks like automated expense reports, invoice processing, and cost forecasting, all while keeping expenses in check.

With automation, CFOs can shift their finance team’s focus from handling routine tasks to making more strategic decisions. Machine learning takes this further by detecting errors and improving financial planning. It also reduces fraud risks and speeds up processes.

Upland Cimpl steps up to the task. It makes processing expense reports faster, easier, and more accurate in just a few clicks. Automated expense management allows teams to focus on higher-value work while maintaining efficiency.

13. Build Stronger Cross-Department Connections

There’s strength in numbers. Thomson Reuters, for example, points out that when multiple practice groups serve a client, the revenue per client increases. Cross-department collaboration also creates stronger, longer-lasting client relationships. Teams that collaborate well make it harder for clients to switch providers.

Technology expense management also depends on collaboration. Teams like IT, finance, business operations, and procurement must learn to work together. When they do, they can shape digital spending and uncover cost-saving opportunities.

Upland Cimpl gets everyone on the same page by centralizing tech spending data and processing automated expense reports, offering real-time visibility.

14. Consider a Switch to Usage-Based Pricing

Usage-based pricing can help businesses manage costs more effectively. You only pay for the services you use, which works well for projects with changing needs. It reduces upfront costs and offers clear billing based on usage. However, it can lead to unexpected costs and extra administrative work.

Nonetheless, as OpenView puts it, even in a challenging economic climate, usage-based public companies are expected to see 38% higher year-over-year revenue growth than their non-usage-based peers. These businesses maintain strong growth at scale — 17% compared to 13%. This success is driven by impressive net retention rates of 125% versus 114% for others.

This model works for businesses that can handle the complexity. Upland Cimpl helps by providing detailed usage and expense data. In short, it makes monitoring costs easier.

15. Audit Your Tech Spend Regularly

Regular audits of your IT and corporate mobile expenses are key to managing costs. Expenses can pile up quickly with endless subscriptions, services, and devices. Auditing helps you spot inefficiencies like unused software or unnecessary mobile plan purchases.

Review your receipts for cloud service purchases and software subscriptions for redundant tools. For mobile expenses, check if each plan matches employee usage and revisit your corporate mobile phone policy — are you paying for services employees don’t need?

Lastly, rely on an expense management system like Upland Cimpl to ensure you’re not overpaying. This system allows you to monitor payments and analyze expenses in real time. Regular audits — quarterly or semi-annually — help optimize tech and mobile spending, keeping costs and expenses in check.

Keep Digital Spend in Check with Upland Cimpl

It looks like uncertainty will continue to shape 2025. With IT spending on the rise, AI gaining ground, and digital acceleration changing how legacy processes work, things are in flux. And businesses need a clear plan to manage these shifts.

Upland Cimpl is here to guide you through the process. If you need an automated expense management system offering real-time visibility and automation, Cimpl makes it easy to manage digital spending and save money. Forget late fees — it’s the right tool to manage expenses and keep your budget in check.

Don’t let rising IT costs catch you off guard. Get started with Upland Cimpl today.