The Hidden Cost of SaaS: Why Your Rising Software Bill Isn’t the Real Problem
by Damian Hardy, Strategy and Performance Director
1. The Visible Problem: Rising SaaS Costs
If it feels like your SaaS bill keeps climbing and finance is on your back, it’s not just a “you” problem.
According to Productiv’s 2024 State of SaaS report, the average SaaS spend per employee has risen to $5,607, up 7% from the previous year, and that’s on top of a 12.8% rise the previous year! In mid-market businesses especially, this spend is ballooning, even as over 50% of licensed seats go unused in a 90-day period.
Why are mid-market businesses in the toughest spot? With enterprise-level complexity but not the scale to unlock enterprise pricing - they’re often paying more per employee than larger companies. These organisations still face similar fragmented systems, redundant tools, and manual gaps that kill efficiency as their larger counterparts, but at a higher price tag.
It’s easy to pin the blame on overbuying or “shadow IT,” but the real story is more complex. Most businesses aren't just spending too much, they’re getting too little value in return.
SaaS spend per employee has risen to $5,607, up 7% from the previous year and over 50% of licensed seats go unused in a 90-day period.
Productiv
2. The Hidden Problem: Manual Gaps Between Tools
Take a closer look inside the typical business, and you’ll see the real cost isn’t the SaaS license, it’s the space between tools.
Imagine this: an employee pulls booking details from one system and pastes them into a contract template. That file is then uploaded to DocuSign. Once signed, it’s manually emailed to finance for invoicing, and tracked on a spreadsheet. At every step, someone is moving data around by hand. Each click introduces delay, risk, and opportunity for error.
According to Quickbase’s 2023 survey, 70% of workers report spending 20 hours a week on “gray work”, manual tasks like chasing updates and reconciling data between systems. Harvard Business Review echoes this: the average employee toggles between apps 1,200 times a day, losing up to 4 hours a week just to regain focus.
That’s not just inefficiency, it’s a system designed to fail.
- Spent every week reconciling between systems.
- 20+ hours
- The number of times a day the average employee toggles between apps.
- 1,200 times
- Lost every week regaining focus after manual 'gray-work'.
- 4 hours
3. How Middleware Closes the Gaps and Reduces Risk
This is where Intelligent Business Middleware comes in, addressing both the visible inefficiencies and the deeper structural gaps to unlock real returns.
Rather than replacing your tech stack, middleware connects what you already have, orchestrating workflows across platforms and automating handoffs between people and systems, including any API capable SaaS platforms. The result? Less copy-paste, fewer errors, and smoother processes from start to finish.
DGxC builds tailored middleware that connects tools like Salesforce, DocuSign, HubSpot, and Xero, without requiring a license for every user. Instead, workflows are routed through a handful of system accounts using APIs, dramatically reducing per-seat costs and operational overhead.
Instead of training people to act like integration layers, we design software that does the bridging work, connecting people to people, people to systems, and systems to systems.
4. Why This Matters More Than Ever
In high-growth or M&A environments, these gaps multiply quickly. Companies onboard new teams, inherit legacy systems, and try to standardize processes across different cultures and workflows. The result? Tool overload, duplicate licenses, and systems that don’t talk.
The KPMG/HFS Maximizing SaaS Value report found that only 25% of companies are getting the value they expected from their SaaS platforms. The majority are stuck managing tickets and updates, instead of using software to drive real business outcomes.
If, like many businesses, you’re treating SaaS as a cost center to be controlled, rather than a flow layer to be optimized - tailored middleware can flip that script.
Only 25% of companies are getting the value they expected from their SaaS platforms.
KPMG & HFS
5. The Future of SaaS Isn’t More Tools, It’s Smarter Connections
We don’t need more apps. We need fewer, better-connected systems, and smarter flow.
The future isn’t about chasing the next AI-driven point solution or adding another platform to your stack. It’s about making what you already have work together intelligently, so your team can spend less time moving data and more time delivering value.
Middleware gives you the power to simplify without slowing down. It cuts cost while increasing speed. And it aligns your tools with your people, not the other way around.
At DGxC, that’s what we do. We turn scattered systems into seamless experiences, for teams and the customers or stakeholders they serve.