How to Spot Gaps, Overlaps, and Hidden Costs in Your Tech Stack

Whether you are looking to prepare your company for future sale or you simply want to run as efficiently as possible, auditing your technology stack is a critical process you cannot afford to do on an inconsistent basis.

Failing to monitor your tech stack can result in your business paying for overlapping subscriptions, underutilized tools or legacy processes that no longer scale.

Sean Laux, technology and innovation manager for K&D Landscaping, based in Watsonville, California, says that in his position, he is reviewing their technology on a daily basis.

“We have quarterly sprints all the time now, just analyzing the stack and then focusing on specific aspects of the business to either enhance, automate, improve or reduce,” Laux says.

At the rate technology is evolving, even the software you brought in five years ago may no longer be the right fit for your organization.

Where to Start

Evan Shufflebarger, VP of corporate strategy for HeartLand, based in Kansas City, Missouri, says one of the red flags they look for when considering purchasing a business is if they don’t have a tech stack at all.

“We use Aspire, but to see LMN or Boss or something like that is a green flag,” Shufflebarger says. “The more that exists on spreadsheets, or worse, pen and paper, the more concerning it is. Not just because the tools themselves are antiquated, but more critically, spreadsheets and paper processes tend to also be bottlenecks – if only one person can see the info or run the process, the business has a scalability issue.”

Shufflebarger says they also sanity check to ensure a company’s tech stack is actually driving the business.

“Can they close the books on a regular cadence, reconcile margins by job and against budget, and produce KPIs people trust to run the business on?” Shufflebarger says. “If every answer requires a one-off export and manual stitching, the tools may be present, but the operating system isn’t.”

Laux acknowledges that reviewing your tech stack can be daunting. He encourages landscape companies to start by reviewing their gaps and overlaps.

“Find your biggest friction point and just say, ‘Hey, where are we spending the most time as a company? Where are we feeling the most pain as a company? What’s slowing us down? What’s not feeling the way it should right now?’” Laux says.

Who To Involve in the Review Process

When evaluating your tech stack, these decisions shouldn’t be made in a vacuum. Laux says while you may not have someone in a full-time technology position like his, someone should own the auditing process.

“I make the determination that we need to evaluate that particular piece of software,” Laux says. “I get with Justin (K&D’s owner) at that point to ensure that we’re aligned on vision. And then I get feedback from anybody who touches that software on a regular basis. If it’s something that they use in their workflow on a day-to-day basis, I want their input and insight before we make a change.”

Laux recommends circumventing team member pushback to changes by sitting down with the department leader and showing them how the new tool will improve their workflow.

“My goal is really not to bring in software that just adds complexity,” Laux says. “Everything I’m looking at right now is to try and get them to have time back. That’s really my goal with the software. It should be people-focused, and it should be driven around efficiency and giving them time back.”

Taking the time to talk to different departments can also help you avoid overlooking certain subscriptions.

“Department-level SaaS (Software as a Service) tools purchased on credit cards, collaboration applications, and small operational, custom-created niche platforms are the most likely to go unnoticed,” Shufflebarger says.

Shufflebarger says they talk to a target company’s leadership team so they can evaluate their tech stack from a place of understanding, as each piece of technology was implemented for a reason.

“We have found some great nuggets from the companies we partner with,” Shufflebarger says. “Everyone does it a bit different, and their respective markets and customers are also a bit different – seeing dozens of different approaches to the landscape tech stack has allowed us to develop what we call best thinking, not necessarily a one-size-fits-all best practices.”

What to Keep, Cut or Consolidate

One of the easiest factors to help determine whether a piece of software should stay or go is if it is redundant or not. Shufflebarger says Aspire often can cover a large chunk of an acquisition’s tech stack, but they are open to keeping other tools that are not superfluous.

“If you have a few users of that tool, it’s probably worth trying to see what other software is you already currently paying for in your stack that that might fill that gap somehow,” Laux says.

Cost is another deciding factor to consider when auditing your tech stack, but it needs to be weighed against the efficiency it provides your team.

“If you find a tool that will give time back, you found an efficiency layer that you really can’t buy,” Laux says. “If your software solution is a bit more expensive, but is fully fleshed out, and I know it’s going to hit all of the marks that that user needs to hit, and if I can give them time back, then that’s almost invaluable to me,” Laux says.

Conducting a formal cost-benefit analysis before renewing a software contract is also encouraged. Shufflebarger says they will review utilization, business impact, support history, and even audit active users tied to licenses before evaluating total cost prior to committing to a renewal.

Laux suggests asking questions such as does it save time, energy and effort for people using it, is it still providing value to the company as a whole, and is it costing you more money than it did two years ago. He says you should also evaluate if the software has had any recent updates or new solutions.

Laux says another framework he uses to determine whether to keep a certain tool is to see if it fits in their five-lane tech stack. He says a piece of software must have a distinct job to be allowed into their ecosystem. K&D’s five lanes include: work execution & delivery, field capture & communication, knowledge & SOPs, data & decisions, and experimentation & improvement.

If you have different teams using similar tools such as Asana and Monday, strive to consolidate and move your team to one tool. Shufflebarger notes that when you standardize on a preferred platform, you can negotiate enterprise agreements to reduce cost and complexity.

Laux says often he seeks solutions that can be used holistically, versus their construction and maintenance division having completely separate tech stacks.  

“In general, you should be looking at how can we bridge that gap and figure out how to get us all in the same software that makes sense for everybody,” Laux says. “Because now we’ve reduced one subscription, everybody’s speaking the same language, everybody’s using the same interface, and it just makes life a lot easier.”

Advice for Others

Laux advises making small incremental changes to your tech stack and focusing on solving one friction point at a time.

“There’s only one way to eat the elephant, and that’s one bite at a time,” Laux says. “Tech stacks are an elephant most of the time because it’s sitting on legacy software that companies may have had for a really long time, and then they’ve added new solutions.”

Shufflebarger says if you want to eventually sell your business, you should get on an operating software early and start cleaning up your operational data a few years out, just like you would with your financials.

“If you are already on a system, but it is not working as intended and your business is suffering, make the switch now,” Shufflebarger says. “If you are not on one at all, make the financial and time investment this season, not next season.”

Auditing your tech stack isn’t just about reducing subscription costs. It also enables you to review whether you have the systems in place to take your business to the next level.