With the acceleration of digital transformation, SaaS software has become a routine part of business operations.
But here’s the real question: Are all those monthly subscriptions actually being used effectively?
After analyzing data from various companies, we found that actual software usage is significantly lower than expected.
Budget leaks are occurring due to underutilized tools, duplicate subscriptions, and inactive users.
Here are four common scenarios where software expenses are silently stacking up.
If your organization fits into any of these, now’s the time to reassess.
Notion is a popular collaborative note-taking tool with a sleek UI and markdown support.
However, its flat-rate licensing model means every user—including those who only view documents—is billed equally.
💰 Pricing (Annual Billing)
🧩 Case 1
A startup using Notion across marketing (8), design (4), and CS (4) teams—about 50 users—was paying over 1 million KRW per month.
Yet, only the CS team actively created content, while most users simply viewed documents.
This inefficient structure went unnoticed for over two years until the company reduced licenses and cut costs.
🧩 Case 2
A mid-sized company with 500 employees managed operational checklists via Notion.
However, only a small group of field staff actually created or updated content; others accessed it occasionally.
Despite knowing the inefficiency, they lacked a solution—losing over 100 million KRW annually to unused licenses.
Most companies choose one of these platforms for email, document collaboration, and productivity.
But mixing PowerPoint and Google Sheets, or adopting different platforms per team, often leads to dual subscriptions.
💰 Microsoft 365 (Annual)
💰 Google Workspace (Annual)
🧩 Case 1
A startup originally adopted Google Workspace. Later, they had to implement Microsoft 365 to support client documents in Word format.
Eventually, all 50 employees were subscribed to both platforms—leading to an annual duplicate cost of nearly 20 million KRW.
🧩 Case 2
Despite having Google Slides, a marketing agency used PowerPoint for presentations due to team preference.
As a result, they maintained subscriptions to both platforms—causing redundant tools, overlapping fees, and format conversion issues.
Adobe tools are the industry standard for design.
But often, companies are forced into full Creative Cloud bundles—even for temporary or one-tool use cases.
💰 Pricing (Excl. VAT)
🧩 Case 1
A marketing firm needed only Photoshop for social media content, yet subscribed all 7 designers to the full Creative Cloud suite—costing 728,000 KRW/month.
In practice, most users only opened Photoshop.
🧩 Case 2
An executive used InDesign 2–3 times a year for print material but maintained a full suite license year-round.
This infrequent use still incurred over 100,000 KRW monthly, unnoticed by the company.
JetBrains tools are powerful but come with a significant cost.
Inactive accounts, role changes, and blanket IDE policies often lead to licenses being renewed without actual usage.
💰 Pricing (Annual)
🧩 Case 1
Company A subscribed its backend team to the full All Products Pack, but most developers only used IntelliJ.
Some accounts logged less than an hour of use in 30 days—essentially unused licenses.
🧩 Case 2
A startup with a 50-person dev team standardized on IntelliJ, even though free tools like Visual Studio Code were sufficient for many.
Licenses were bought for everyone, resulting in long-term overspending with little review.
The common thread in all these cases?
👉 Lack of visibility into actual software usage
👉 No tracking of who’s using what and how often
Most companies continue paying for tools simply because “someone might need it” or “we’ve always had it.”
But that mindset is no longer sustainable in today’s budget-conscious world.
Sellease automatically collects and analyzes your software usage data.
It shows clearly:
✔ Who is using what
✔ When and how often
✔ Which tools are underused or inactive
And enables you to:
✅ Eliminate unnecessary licenses
✅ Consolidate overlapping subscriptions
✅ Identify inactive or former user accounts
✅ Generate department-level usage reports
📉 Save millions of KRW per year
📊 Optimize IT spending with confidence
📈 Boost software asset efficiency by over 40%
🎯 Do you know which tools your team actually uses?
Sellease gives you the answer—with data.
Start managing your software assets the smart way.
Sellease makes hidden costs visible—so you can finally cut them.
