How resilient is your organization? Not how fast you’re innovating or how great your customer experience is, but how well you can navigate change. Roughly 60% of leaders see this as the most important quality a business can have, and they’re elevating IT Expense Management (ITEM) in response.
At its core, ITEM – also referred to as Technology Expense Management (TEM), IT Cost Management, and Technology Business Management (TBM) – is about better understanding, governing, and optimizing the business technology ecosystem to drive measurable value.
In today’s global, digital-first era, leaders leverage ITEM not just for cost savings but to create greater visibility, standardization, agility, and control across their technology environments – enabling better decisions as they navigate pressure from every direction.
- The enterprise economy is experiencing a boom that will dictate greater spending by organizations well into 2026 and beyond.
- Companies are writing open checks on advancing tech with little value to show. A 2025 IBM study found that only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI.
- Security risks, and the astronomical costs associated with them, are on a constant rise – made only more complicated by AI tactics like deepfakes and voice phishing.
- Geopolitical instability, from trade disputes and tariffs to regulatory shifts, can affect business plans overnight.
Roughly 40% of business leaders say their organizations lack the skills and infrastructure needed to adapt when conditions change. Here’s why ITEM is key to bridging this gap.
Building Financial Resilience with ITEM
As technology environments become larger and more complex, leaders need visibility into what they have, how it’s being used, what it’s costing, and whether it’s delivering value.
When you know where each dollar is going – and more importantly, where hard-earned budget is being wasted – you’re able to strengthen financial resiliency: padding cash reserves, unlocking working capital, and funding innovation without turning to lines of credit.
This matters more than ever today.
Half of IT leaders waste 25% of their cloud spend, and one-third waste half.
Over half of SaaS licenses go unused each month, and a lot of those subscriptions renew on autopilot. It’s not uncommon for organizations to leave 6-7 figures on the table annually because employees are over-licensed, underutilizing tools, or paying for software they no longer need. Across the entire cloud ecosystem, waste hides in plain sight.
AI budgets are growing, but returns aren’t.
New research shows that nearly 40% of companies that measure their AI cost savings land below 10%, despite targeting 11% to 20%, yet 90% are increasing their budgets. From GPU-driven computing to high-volume data transfer and storage, AI is an entirely different beast that requires an entirely different financial operating model. Most leaders don’t know what cost measures matter, and they don’t have expense management solutions or expertise to control it.
Explore the AI cost paradox – are you measuring the wrong things?
Future-proofing Technology Expense Management
Everything from device logistics to bill pay can be financially optimized to plug holes in the IT budget. Vendors charging an arm and a leg for a single POTS service. Devices collecting dust that you’re still paying for. Every line item adds up.
ITEM enables the system integrations and real-time data analysis needed to continually optimize it all – including AI, which has spurred a new spectrum of uncontrolled costs. Tangoe is proud to be one of few providers globally whose ITEM platform is purpose-built for FinOps, including FinOps for AI, and certified by the FinOps Foundation.
See how Tangoe One can double your savings potential →
Building Operational Resilience with ITEM
ITEM is more than just controlling costs. It’s about governing and controlling the business of technology: the vendors, contracts, lifecycle workflows, compliance requirements, and policies that support an increasingly complex technology ecosystem. That’s why ITEM is now considered a strategic discipline. In fact, nearly half of IT leaders say aligning IT strategy with business objectives is the most important thing a CIO can do in 2026 – quite the jump from 34% in 2025.
Learn more about aligning IT strategy with business value →
A mobile device isn’t just a mobile device. It’s carrier contracts, billing management, tax compliance, security policies and full lifecycle support. In global organizations, there’s a complex web of regulations and rules that vary country-by-country. Every IT asset and service has a similar story behind it.
The more control you have over your IT ecosystem, the more influence you have over what happens next. When new regulations emerge, you can update policies quickly and confidently. When a major disruption forces teams to work differently, you can pivot without sacrificing security or governance.
And it’s not just about mitigating risk. It’s just as much about seizing opportunity. For example, you can tap new markets faster because you’re not scrambling to figure out mobile logistics. Or when a new AI tool shows promise, you’re able to roll it out faster because you already have the infrastructure in place. Strong governance and control over your IT environment is one of the strongest levers you can pull for staying resilient as conditions change.
Are You Prepared for What Could Happen Next?
The need for financial management and operational management has never changed – it’s everything else that has changed underneath us. Technology is deeply embedded in how today’s business operates, making it both a growing source of complexity and a critical driver of resilience.
Schedule a demo of Tangoe One to see exactly what you should expect from your ITEM solution.