Consolidate Your SaaS Stack: A Practical Guide

Your organization uses 89 apps. You know this is too many. You know the fragmentation costs productivity, creates security risk, and prevents effective AI deployment.

But how do you actually consolidate without creating chaos?

This guide provides a practical framework for SaaS stack consolidation—from audit to execution—based on work with hundreds of organizations facing the same challenge.

Phase 1: Discovery and Audit

The Complete Inventory

Before you can consolidate, you need to know what you have. Most organizations dramatically underestimate their tool count.

Sources to check:

IT procurement records: What's officially purchased
SSO/identity provider logs: What's actively accessed
Expense reports: What departments are buying directly
Credit card statements: What's purchased without IT involvement
Browser extension audits: What's installed on company devices
Employee surveys: What tools are actually being used

According to Zylo research, organizations typically discover 30-50% more applications than IT is aware of during thorough audits.

Create a master inventory with:

Application name
Vendor
Primary function/category
Monthly/annual cost
Number of licensed users
Number of active users (past 30 days)
Business owner
IT owner (if different)
Data stored
Integrations with other tools

Cost Analysis

Direct costs are just the beginning.

Visible costs:

License fees
Implementation costs
Training costs
Support contracts

Hidden costs (often larger):

Context switching between applications
Integration maintenance
Security and compliance overhead
Knowledge fragmentation across tools
Onboarding time for each tool

Gartner estimates that hidden costs typically equal or exceed visible SaaS spending. For every dollar spent on licenses, assume another dollar in hidden productivity costs.

Usage Analysis

License count means nothing without usage data.

Metrics to capture:

Monthly active users: How many licensed users actually logged in?
Usage depth: Surface usage vs. feature utilization
Usage frequency: Daily users vs. monthly users
User sentiment: Do people value the tool or tolerate it?

Red flags:

Usage below 50% of licensed seats
Declining usage over time
Tool used by small subset for niche purpose
Users expressing frustration
Features duplicated by other tools

Many organizations find that 20-30% of SaaS spending goes to tools with less than 50% user adoption.

Phase 2: Categorization and Mapping

Function-Based Categorization

Group your tools by what they do:

Work management: Project management, task tracking, roadmaps Communication: Chat, email, video, async communication Documentation: Wikis, documents, knowledge bases Productivity: Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations Analytics: Business intelligence, reporting, dashboards Customer: CRM, support, success Finance: Accounting, billing, expenses HR: Recruiting, performance, payroll Development: Code, deployment, monitoring Security: Identity, access, compliance

Overlap Identification

Within each category, map feature overlap.

Common overlaps:

Multiple project management tools (Asana AND Monday AND Jira)
Multiple documentation platforms (Notion AND Confluence AND Google Docs)
Multiple communication channels (Slack AND Teams AND email)
Multiple analytics tools (Tableau AND Looker AND custom dashboards)

For each overlap, assess:

Are they serving different functions or duplicating?
Are different teams using different tools for the same purpose?
Could one tool serve all use cases?

This is where tool sprawl becomes visible—multiple tools doing the same job because teams made independent decisions.

Strategic Mapping

Beyond function, map to strategic importance:

Tier 1 - Core operational: Tools the business cannot function without Tier 2 - Important: Significant productivity impact if removed Tier 3 - Useful: Convenience and nice-to-have Tier 4 - Questionable: Unclear value, limited usage Tier 5 - Redundant: Duplicate functionality with other tools

Be honest about tiers. Most organizations find 30-40% of tools in Tiers 4 and 5.

Phase 3: Consolidation Strategy

The Consolidation Decision Framework

For each tool, ask:

Is this the only tool serving this function?
- If yes: Keep (unless function isn't needed)
- If no: Proceed to question 2
Is this the best tool for this function?
- Compare features, usage, costs with overlapping tools
- Choose one, plan to eliminate others
Could this function be absorbed by a platform?
- Individual point solutions vs. integrated platforms
- Platform consolidation reduces integration overhead
What's the switching cost?
- Data migration complexity
- User retraining required
- Integration dependencies
- Contractual commitments
What's the business risk of consolidation?
- Critical workflows dependent on specific tool
- User resistance potential
- Vendor lock-in considerations

Platform vs. Point Solution Strategy

Point solutions: Best-of-breed individual tools for each function

Pros: Deep functionality for specific needs Cons: Creates silos, requires integration, multiplies overhead

Platforms: Integrated systems covering multiple functions

Pros: Unified data, reduced integration, simpler stack Cons: May compromise on specific features, bigger migration

The trend: Organizations are moving from point solutions to platforms because:

AI effectiveness requires unified data
Integration costs exceed platform premiums
Context switching costs are becoming visible

The Context Compass approach suggests: prioritize platforms that preserve organizational context over tools that optimize individual functions.

Prioritization Matrix

Score each consolidation opportunity:

Value (1-5): Cost savings + productivity gains + strategic benefit Difficulty (1-5): Migration complexity + risk + resistance

Priority order:

Quick wins: High value, low difficulty
Strategic initiatives: High value, high difficulty
Fill-ins: Low value, low difficulty (do when convenient)
Avoid: Low value, high difficulty

Start with quick wins to build momentum and prove value.

Phase 4: Migration Execution

The Phased Approach

Don't try to consolidate everything at once.

Wave 1 (Month 1-3): Quick wins

Eliminate obviously redundant tools
Consolidate where user impact is minimal
Build confidence and methodology

Wave 2 (Month 4-8): Core consolidation

Major platform decisions
Significant tool eliminations
Change management intensive

Wave 3 (Month 9-12): Optimization

Clean up remaining redundancies
Optimize consolidated stack
Establish governance to prevent re-sprawl

Change Management

Tool consolidation fails without people management.

Communication plan:

Why consolidation is happening (not just cost cutting)
What's changing and when
What support is available
How to provide feedback

Training plan:

Before-migration preparation
During-migration support
After-migration reinforcement

Resistance management:

Identify power users of deprecated tools
Involve them in migration planning
Address legitimate concerns
Document why decisions were made

People are attached to their tools. Research from Prosci shows that projects with excellent change management are 6x more likely to meet objectives than those with poor change management.

Data Migration

The technical complexity of consolidation.

Migration planning checklist:

What data exists in the deprecated tool?
What data must be migrated vs. archived vs. abandoned?
What's the migration path (export/import, API, manual)?
Who owns migration execution?
How long will parallel operation continue?
What's the rollback plan if migration fails?

Data mapping:

Source system fields → Target system fields
Required transformations
Historical data handling
Relationship preservation

Testing:

Migrate sample data first
Verify accuracy and completeness
Test integrations with migrated data
User acceptance testing before full migration

Timing Considerations

Good timing:

After fiscal year close (clean breaks)
During lower activity periods
Aligned with contract renewals
When new platform is stable

Bad timing:

During peak business periods
Mid-project when dependencies are active
When key stakeholders are unavailable
Right before major company events

Phase 5: Governance and Sustainability

Preventing Re-Sprawl

Consolidation is pointless if sprawl returns.

Governance framework:

Tool request process: Clear path for requesting new tools
Evaluation criteria: Standard checklist before approval
Overlap checking: Does existing tool serve this function?
Business case requirement: Justify the addition
IT security review: Before any new SaaS

Evaluation checklist for new tools:

Is this function not served by existing tools?
Have platform extensions been considered?
What's the total cost of ownership (including hidden costs)?
What data will it store and how does that affect security?
What integrations are required?
Who will own administration?
What's the sunset plan if it doesn't work out?

Regular Review Cycles

Schedule periodic stack reviews:

Quarterly: Usage review of all Tier 1-2 tools Annually: Complete stack audit (repeat Phase 1) Per incident: Review any tool that causes problems

Success Metrics

Track consolidation impact:

Direct metrics:

Total tool count
Total SaaS spend
Unused license percentage
Integration count

Indirect metrics:

Time spent finding information
Onboarding time for new employees
Context switching frequency
Employee satisfaction with tools

The AI Readiness Payoff

Beyond cost savings, consolidation enables AI capability.

Fragmented stack: AI can only work within individual silos. Each tool's AI knows only its own data.

Consolidated stack: AI can understand organizational context. Unified data enables unified intelligence.

Context engineering requires consolidated data. Every consolidation step moves toward AI readiness.

The organization that consolidates in 2026 will have AI capabilities in 2027 that fragmented competitors cannot match.

Experience Unified Work

Want to see what consolidated work management looks like? Waymaker Commander brings projects, documents, strategy, and AI together in one platform—the destination for stack consolidation.

The result: One source of truth. One interface. AI that understands the complete picture.

SaaS stack consolidation isn't just cost reduction—it's strategic investment. Fewer tools means less fragmentation, better AI readiness, and more organizational capability. The work is significant, but the returns compound. Learn more about our Context Compass framework and explore how unified platforms enable organizational intelligence.

Stuart Leo has led stack consolidation for 100+ organizations. He's the author of Resolute and founder of Waymaker, designed as the consolidation destination for teams escaping tool sprawl.