Wir wetten: Mindestens eines dieser 6 Lizenzprobleme haben Sie auch

Summer. The vacation season is in full swing. Your inbox is finally a little lighter, the phone rings less often, and many projects are on hold. Perfect conditions to put your feet up—or to take an honest look at your own license management.

Because let’s be honest: Whether you’re a CIO, IT director, software asset manager, or licensing manager—certain challenges face nearly every company. Some are annoying, some are costly, and some don’t turn into a real compliance risk until months later.

That’s why we’re willing to bet: You’re facing at least one of the following six licensing problems.

The employee left the company six months ago.

Their laptop has been returned, their access card no longer works, and their account has been deactivated.

The licenses, however, are still running full steam ahead: Microsoft 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, Jira, Salesforce

The problem isn’t just the unnecessary expense. Often, there’s a lack of clear processes between HR, IT, and license management, so permissions and subscriptions aren’t consistently revoked and canceled.

The result: Month after month, the company pays for licenses that no one uses anymore.

Of course, the file has a professional name: SoftwareInventoryfinalv7NEW2026_update.xlsx

Excel is and remains an excellent tool. However, it becomes problematic when the entire license management process depends on it.

Data is entered manually. Calculations can change quickly. No one knows exactly which version is current.

By the time audits or contract negotiations roll around, at the very latest, this handy list quickly turns into a risk and requires a lot of additional manual effort.

You actually wanted to prepare much better for this year’s negotiations. You actually wanted to benchmark prices. You actually wanted to explore alternatives.

Then comes the reminder: “The automatic renewal has already been triggered.”

Many manufacturers now rely on automatic contract renewals. If deadlines are missed, another contract year is quickly added—often under terms that could have been negotiated to be significantly more attractive.

That’s why contract management is no longer just an administrative task—it’s a strategic success factor, and timely preparation is the key to success.

Marketing uses Trello.

Sales works with Microsoft Planner.

IT has already implemented Jira.

And the business department is currently testing MeisterTask

They all serve virtually the same purpose.

The result: duplicate features, differing contract terms, unnecessary costs, and increasing administrative overhead

This situation arises surprisingly quickly, especially in the SaaS environment. Many purchases are made directly by business units, bypassing established procurement processes.

Shadow IT often turns into a shadow portfolio this way.

2025 and 2026 were all about AI. Many companies have already implemented or piloted Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini, and other AI solutions.

But once the procurement is complete, the real challenge begins:

Who is actually using the solution?

Not every activated license automatically generates added value. Without adoption programs, training, and usage analytics, a significant portion of the expected business benefits often goes unrealized.

To put it another way: The most expensive AI license is the one that nobody uses.

In the past, employees installed software without approval. Today, they use AI services. New tools can be registered and put to productive use within minutes.

The challenge:

- Company data may leave controlled environments

- New costs arise outside of established processes

- Compliance requirements are unwittingly circumvented

For many companies, Shadow AI is currently becoming the same challenge that Shadow IT posed a few years ago. The difference is that the pace of change is significantly faster.

If you found yourself smiling or nodding at least once while reading this, you’re in good company.

Most of these challenges don’t stem from a lack of expertise, but from the increasing complexity of modern software landscapes. Between SaaS, the cloud, AI, FinOps, and traditional licensing models, transparency is becoming an ever-greater challenge.

And if you’re convinced that your company isn’t affected by any of these six points, we have a seventh bet for you:

You’ll probably find something if you take a closer look. 😉