With products that can do practically anything, it's not hard to see why so many business owners are obsessed with collecting new software products. However, if you invest too heavily in these products, your tech stack can quickly spiral out of control, leading to software overload or app fatigue.

What are the problems associated with this and how can you avoid this unfortunate destination?

The Software Overload/Fatigue/Bloat Problem

Let's start by identifying why it's such an issue to have too many software platforms at once.

·       Excessive costs. The most obvious problem is that each software platform in your arsenal is going to cost your business money. If you have multiple pieces of software serving similar functions, this money is going to waste. Even if it seems like each piece of software is useful, these costs can quickly spiral out of control and hurt your bottom line. 

·       Excessive vulnerabilities. Additionally, even with the best due diligence in place, each piece of software your company uses is going to introduce a new angle of vulnerability. If your business has 100 systems, it has 100 potential points of entry.

·       Employee confusion. Problems get even more complicated because of employee confusion. If there are multiple pieces of software competing, how are your employees supposed to know which one to use in which scenario? If data “lives” in multiple locations, which one is more reliable in the event of a conflict?

·       Training and education woes. Training and education present yet another issue. If you expect your employees to know and use several different pieces of software, you or they will need to invest the time necessary to learn those platforms. At scale, this can cost you dozens, or even hundreds of collective hours.

·       Data issues. Finally, in this age of data and information, errors and discrepancies are much more likely to arise as your number of software platforms grows.

The Easy Solution: Software ROI

A good solution to this problem must be objective, straightforward, and relatively easy to adopt. That’s why the arguably best solution is to see and measure everything through the lens of software return on investment, or ROI.

Essentially, software ROI seeks to measure how much value a piece of software brings to your organization, compared to what you pay for it. This is an excellent basis of comparison, allowing you to compare and contrast the various pieces of technology within your organization. The higher the ROI is, the more indispensable the platform is. But you'll also need to consider platforms that ostensibly serve the same purpose or overlap in different areas.

Hypothetically, a thorough ROI analysis of both your existing platforms and hypothetical future ones can help you determine the most efficient group of systems to incorporate into your environment.

How do you do it?

Phase One: Auditing/Analysis

Software overload isn’t always easy to identify, even within your own organization. That's why the first phase is to conduct an audit or analysis of your existing software. Which pieces of software are truly indispensable? Which ones overlap with others? What is the estimated ROI for each of these platforms and how might that change in the future?

The better and more objective your grasp is, the better you'll be able to follow the next phases.

Phase Two: Trimming the Fat

At this point, you should be in a position to trim the fat. In other words, you want to get rid of any platforms that aren't strictly necessary or uniquely valuable. Get rid of anything with a negative or questionable ROI, as well as any platform that serves redundant purposes.

Phase Three: Consolidation

Next, you'll want to consolidate. Look at your existing platforms and see if they can be replaced by more cohesive platforms or if they can be integrated in a way that allows them to work together more smoothly. For example, you could choose a new enterprise platform meant to serve as a single source of truth (SSOT) in its own right – or you could integrate multiple platforms together so they work in unison to serve a similar function.

Phase Four: Stress Testing and Perfection

The first three phases should be sufficient to put you in a more efficient, more streamlined position. But the fourth phase is also important: it's important to stress test your work and keep making tweaks until you have a more perfect system in place. This is a phase that unfolds very gradually – and indefinitely, as perfection is never truly reachable.

You don't need to have a perfect system to save money and increase productivity. Even a cursory analysis of your existing software platforms should lead you in the direction of optimization – and even relatively minor optimizations can have a big impact on your bottom line.