{"id":113318,"date":"2024-07-25T10:54:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/?p=113318"},"modified":"2024-07-25T10:54:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:54:22","slug":"smes-have-9x-suppliers-as-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jumpcloud.com\/blog\/smes-have-9x-suppliers-as-employees","title":{"rendered":"Why SMEs Have 9x as Many Suppliers as Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Think about all the vendors your company pays for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many do you think there are? Out of those, how many do you think it actually uses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spendesk examined this question in over 5,000 small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.K., France, Germany, and Spain. The results were surprising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study found<\/a> that the average SME has 800 suppliers. That\u2019s nine times the average SME headcount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, SMEs are only using about a quarter of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These stats are, at first glance, staggering. What could possibly cause SMEs to pay for so many services \u2014 and then not use them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But letting spending get away from you is easier than it sounds \u2014 especially when companies are pressured to move quickly and keep up with the latest and greatest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blog will examine this phenomenon and how it applies specifically to software \u2014 which fell into the top spending category in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ugly Truth of IT Sprawl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course, software is necessary for the modern business. However, many SMEs end up overspending on software they don\u2019t need \u2014 thus contributing to this trend of overbuying and underutilizing suppliers. When this happens with software, it\u2019s called IT sprawl<\/a>. It can create security vulnerabilities, hamper productivity, and proverbially flush money down the toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most IT architectures decentralize over time. It happens naturally as teams adapt to meet new needs. Some solutions fall out of use as processes change; other solutions arise to meet new needs. It wouldn\u2019t be realistic for IT to conduct full-scale analyses every time a small IT change is requested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some factors exacerbate architecture\u2019s natural tendency to sprawl. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n