Your SaaS costs grow faster than headcount.
A structured audit of your full SaaS stack. What to cut, what to renegotiate, what to replace with AI. Ranked action list with estimated savings per tool.
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The situation
80-120 SaaS subscriptions. At least 20% are waste.
The average mid-market company pays for 80-120 SaaS tools. They accumulate over years: someone signs up for a trial, it becomes a subscription, nobody tracks whether it is still used. Finance pays the invoices. IT does not audit the stack. The CTO does not know half the tools exist.
The result: 20-30% of SaaS spend is either redundant, underutilised, or immediately renegotiable.
The AI angle makes this urgent in 2026.
SaaS consolidation has been a finance exercise for years. What is new: several of your EUR 500/month tools could be replaced by a custom AI solution at a fraction of the annual cost. The 3-year savings on AI replacement candidates typically run 5-10x the build cost.
No internal team ever finds time to do this analysis. IT is too busy. Finance does not have the technical context. The CTO is too close to the tools to cut objectively.
That is what this audit does. One week. One deliverable. Clear numbers.
What you will know
A ranked SaaS action list across three tiers.
Cut immediately: tools with no active users or fully duplicated by another tool. Savings start the day you cancel.
Renegotiate: contracts with clear downgrade or renegotiation paths. Estimated savings per tool with specific negotiation recommendations.
Replace with AI: ranked shortlist of tools where custom AI delivers equivalent functionality at 20-80% lower annual cost. Estimated build cost vs. subscription savings over 3 years.
Every recommendation includes current annual cost, estimated saving, effort to implement, and recommended next step.
The audit pays for itself before you implement a single change.
How it works
Inventory
Complete SaaS subscription inventory: every active tool, cost, contract terms, renewal date, actual usage data. Typically sourced from finance, procurement, and IT systems.
Analysis
Redundancy mapping, utilisation scoring, AI replacement candidate identification. Each tool assessed on usage, overlap, contract flexibility, and AI replaceability.
Debrief
Ranked action list delivery. Walkthrough with CFO/CTO/COO. Specific recommendations per tool with estimated savings and next steps.
Scope
What is included
Complete SaaS subscription inventory across the organisation.
Usage analysis: seats paid vs. seats used, features activated vs. features available.
Redundancy mapping: tools doing the same job across teams.
AI replacement candidate shortlist with estimated build cost vs. 3-year subscription savings.
Negotiation leverage assessment for contracts up for renewal in the next 6 months.
Ranked action list with estimated savings per tool.
60-minute debrief call with CFO, CTO, or COO.
What is not included
Vendor negotiation on your behalf (recommendations provided, execution is yours).
Cloud infrastructure cost analysis (see Cloud Cost Audit for AWS/GCP/Azure).
Implementation of AI replacement solutions (scoped separately).
Ongoing SaaS management or monitoring.
Who does the work
Lars Strojny, Principal Consultant.
Lars brings deep technical context to a cost exercise. He understands both the business value of each SaaS tool and the engineering feasibility of replacing it with custom AI. The audit is not a spreadsheet exercise: it is a strategic assessment of your tool stack with AI replacement economics built in.
This combination of business and technology perspective is what makes the AI replacement recommendations credible. A finance consultant can find the waste. Gradion can find the waste and scope the replacement.
Why Gradion
We find the waste and we build the replacement.
No other firm at this price point offers both the audit and the ability to build the AI solution that replaces the identified tools. The audit output is the implementation brief.
Not a SaaS management tool. A senior consultant.
SaaS management platforms (Zylo, Torii, Productiv) track usage but do not recommend action or scope AI replacements. A generic cost-cutting consultant finds waste but cannot evaluate AI feasibility. Gradion does both.
EUR 6,000 vs EUR 30K+ from a Big consultancy.
Procurement reviews from large firms start at EUR 30K and take 8 weeks. Gradion delivers in 1 week at EUR 6,000 because senior engineers plus AI tooling equals faster execution, not lower quality.
SaaS Cost Audit
Fixed price. No surprises. No hidden costs.
Standard
Full SaaS stack audit: subscription inventory, redundancy mapping, AI replacement candidates, ranked action list with savings estimates. 1 week.
- Complete SaaS subscription inventory
- Usage and redundancy analysis
- AI replacement candidate shortlist with build cost estimates
- Negotiation leverage assessment
- Ranked action list with savings per tool
- 60-minute debrief call
Common questions
How is this different from Cloud Cost Audit?
SaaS Cost Audit covers your business tool stack: Slack, HubSpot, Zendesk, Jira, expense tools, HR tools, reporting tools. Cloud Cost Audit covers infrastructure: AWS, GCP, Azure compute, storage, CI/CD pipelines. Different scope, different buyer, complementary. Running both gives you the full cost picture.
Do you negotiate with vendors for us?
No. We provide specific renegotiation recommendations with estimated savings and talking points. Your procurement or finance team executes the negotiations. Most clients prefer this: they know their vendor relationships better than we do.
What data do you need?
A list of SaaS subscriptions with costs (typically from finance or procurement). Access to usage data where available (admin dashboards, seat counts). A 60-minute kickoff call with whoever manages the tool stack. Most companies can provide this within 1-2 days.
How quickly do savings materialise?
Tier 1 savings (cut immediately) start the day you cancel unused subscriptions. Tier 2 savings (renegotiate) depend on contract renewal timing, typically 1-6 months. Tier 3 savings (AI replacement) require a build engagement, typically 4-12 weeks. Most clients recover the audit fee within the first month from Tier 1 cuts alone.
From audit to production
The SaaS Cost Audit feeds directly into three follow-on paths.
AI replacement build: commission Gradion to build the custom AI solution that replaces the identified tools. This is the most common follow-on. The audit output is the build brief with ROI already quantified.
AI Process Audit: if the audit surfaces process inefficiencies beyond tooling, this is the natural next step. First find the waste, then find the AI opportunity.
Engineering retainer: for clients with multiple replacement candidates, a phased build programme scoped directly from the audit findings.
No obligation to proceed. The audit stands on its own as a deliverable.
SaaS Cost Audit: EUR 6,000
Fixed price. 1 week. Fill out the form and we will confirm availability and scope within 48 hours.
- No obligation. No sales pitch.
- Response within 48 hours.
- Senior practitioner, not a junior analyst.