Why Too Many Tools Could Be Killing Your Growth - SaaS Sprawl
- Steffen Gorgas
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
The hidden cost of SaaS sprawl, and how to fix it without starting from scratch
Most businesses don’t plan for a bloated tech stack; it happens gradually. A tool for managing projects, another for tracking customers, one for sharing files, and something for internal chat. Over time, the software that was meant to speed things up starts to slow everything down.
According to Gartner, up to 30% of SaaS spend is wasted on underused or overlapping tools. And Forrester reports that employees lose more than six hours a week just switching between apps. That’s time lost not to the work itself, but to the systems around it.
These aren’t isolated issues; they’re signs of a deeper problem. When tools multiply, workflows fragment. Data becomes harder to find. Teams lose clarity. And instead of supporting growth, your tech stack starts to get in the way of it.
In this article, we’ll explore the real cost of SaaS sprawl and what businesses are doing to regain control.
The Hidden Cost of SaaS Sprawl
The promise of modern software is that it makes life easier. But when every team adopts its own set of tools, often without a unified plan, you end up with overlap, duplication, and gaps.
You might have one team using Trello, another using Asana. Sales logs everything in HubSpot, while the delivery team stores documents in Google Drive. Conversations are split across Teams, Slack, and inboxes. The result? No single source of truth, and a lot of time wasted asking, “Where’s that file?”
Tool sprawl creeps in quietly, but its impact is measurable:
Higher software costs from redundant subscriptions
Slower decision-making due to siloed information
Increased onboarding time for new staff
Confusion about where to find what, or who’s responsible for what
And it’s not just operational efficiency that suffers. As tools multiply, so do your security risks. Every new platform is another access point to manage, another vendor to monitor, and another layer of complexity for IT to support.
Complexity Slows Teams Down
There’s a common belief that better tools equal better outcomes. But often, it’s the opposite. The more tools you add, the more energy your team spends switching between them, not doing the work.
McKinsey found that companies with fragmented digital systems spend 29% more on tech but see lower business impact. Meanwhile, Productiv reports that the average enterprise uses only 40% of the features they pay for.
More tools rarely mean more value. Instead, it creates friction:
Employees waste time updating multiple systems
Important information gets lost across apps
Teams duplicate work because they can’t see what others are doing
Managers lose visibility into performance and progress
If your team is feeling stretched or disconnected, it might not be a resource issue — it could be a tool issue.
What High-Performing Teams Are Doing Instead
There’s a quiet shift happening in organisations that are scaling well. Instead of chasing the latest tools, they’re consolidating. Simplifying. Building around core systems they already trust.
This approach is sometimes called the “core platform” model. The idea is simple: instead of stitching together dozens of apps, you focus on using a few core platforms deeply and effectively — ideally ones your team already knows.
For many businesses, Microsoft 365 is that platform. Outlook, Word, Excel, SharePoint, Teams, these are tools most companies already use. But without structure, they’re often underutilised or disconnected.
That’s where SharePortals comes in.
A Smarter Way to Work in Microsoft 365
SharePortals doesn’t try to replace your systems, it connects them.
It turns Microsoft 365 into a fully integrated workspace, helping teams organise customer emails, documents, tasks, and collaboration in one place. Instead of jumping between platforms, your team can access everything they need from a single view, inside the tools they already use.
It helps reduce the need for additional CRMs, task managers, or file-sharing platforms, not by replicating them, but by streamlining the work that actually happens day to day.
For example:
Emails in Outlook link directly to related files and task lists
Client documents stay versioned and accessible to your team
Tasks and follow-ups can be tracked without adding another app
Internal and external users can collaborate through secure, branded portals
Final Thoughts
SaaS sprawl doesn’t feel like a problem until it is. Until productivity stalls, or data goes missing, or your team starts spending more time navigating systems than doing their jobs.
The solution isn’t more software. It’s less complexity.
If your team already uses Microsoft 365, you don’t need to start over. You just need a smarter way to bring everything together and let your people focus on the work that matters.
That’s what SharePortals is built for.
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