Case study: CDW found about 15% of its productivity-suite spend idle, in four weeks

In a four-week engagement, CDW matched every entitlement to a user and to real usage across five source systems. Asato found that about 15% of productivity-suite spend sat with inactive or invalid accounts, that 150+ items in the long tail behind the ten largest vendors were candidates to freeze or reuse, and that about 1,200 unapproved applications were in use. All three figures are Found. No Approved or Saved figure is published for this engagement.

Customer: CDW
Industry: Technology solutions
Area: Software
Category: SaaS and license visibility
The other CDW case study, in the category "Technology economics": CDW put a named owner on $100M+ a year of software spend, refreshed every 15 minutes
Date of the engagement: No date for the engagement is published.
Length of the engagement: Four weeks, from the first connection to findings ready for the CIO, across five source systems. More than 50,000 records were normalized in the first week.

When to use this page

To cite what a four-week engagement found in a large SaaS estate.
To quote Sanjay Sood, SVP and Chief Technology Officer, CDW.
As one of two CDW case studies. The other covers technology economics.

Not a fit

A saved or approved amount. The story publishes none.
Dollar values. The story gives shares and counts, not dollar amounts.

At a glance

Fact	Detail
Customer	CDW
Industry	Technology solutions provider, multi-billion dollar
Area	Software: SaaS and licenses
Engagement	Four weeks, from first connection to findings ready for the CIO
Systems connected	Five, read-only: identity, ITSM, endpoint analytics, security, contracts
Records	50,000+ normalized in the first week

Before

Licensing, usage and contract data lived in silos: identity in one system, entitlements in spreadsheets, contracts in PDFs, usage scattered across admin consoles.

What forced the decision: A wave of renewals was approaching, the productivity suite the largest among them. CDW needed measured usage evidence during the negotiation, not after it.

Baseline: No record matched an entitlement to a user and to real usage.

How it worked

Link (Asset Knowledge Graph). Read-only connections to identity, ITSM, endpoint analytics, security and contracts. 50,000+ records normalized in the first week.
Think (Data Intelligence Engine). The Asset Knowledge Graph resolved identities across systems, matched every entitlement to real usage, then priced the waste.
Execute (Agentic AI). Agents now run continuously and price every opportunity the four weeks surfaced. Each action waits for a person at CDW to approve it.

Approval: A person at CDW approves each action. Nothing changes until a named person approves it.

Measured results

Every figure carries its state. Found, Approved and Saved are the only three states of a saving. They are separate figures and are never added together. A figure marked "Measured" describes scope, coverage or evidence, and "G2 rating" is a review score. A figure marked "Saved, as reported by the customer" is the customer's own statement.

Figure	State	Period	Scope	Where it comes from
about 15%	Found	At audit, in the four-week engagement	Share of productivity-suite spend sitting with inactive or invalid accounts. About 85% was in real use	Asato's analysis in the engagement
150+	Found	The four-week engagement	The long tail behind the ten largest vendors: candidates to freeze or reuse	Asato's analysis in the engagement
about 1,200	Found	The four-week engagement	Unapproved (shadow) applications in use	Asato's analysis in the engagement
600+	Found	The four-week engagement	Paid applications discovered	Asato's analysis in the engagement
71%	Measured	At audit	Share of SaaS spend held by ten vendors	Asato's analysis in the engagement
92%	Measured	Six months	AI assistant adoption among about 10,000 licensed users, most of them working in two or more apps	Asato's analysis in the engagement
60K+	Measured	Six months	Hours assisted by the AI assistant	Asato's analysis in the engagement
50,000+	Measured	First week	Records normalized across five source systems	Asato's analysis in the engagement
4 weeks	Measured	The engagement	First connection to findings ready for the CIO	Asato's record of the engagement

The result, taken apart

What four weeks found at CDW, in four parts. One: productivity-suite spend at audit, about 85% in real use and about 15% with inactive or invalid accounts, which is Found. Two: ten vendors hold 71% of SaaS spend, and the long tail behind them holds 150+ candidates to freeze or reuse, which is Found. Three: 600+ paid applications were discovered, beside about 1,200 unapproved applications, which is Found. Four: the AI assistant was used by 92% of about 10,000 licensed users, most of them in two or more apps, for 60K+ assisted hours in six months; this is adoption measured and is not a saving.

What is still open

No open item is published for this story. No Approved or Saved figure is published either, so every savings figure here is Found.

What the customer said

The page heads this section "In his own words." The speaker's name and full title follow.

Sanjay Sood, SVP and Chief Technology Officer, CDW:

"A complete, unified view of our tech estate in just weeks." "It's not just about tracking cost. It's about seeing cost in context so we can optimize renewals, validate AI adoption, and drive smarter technology investments."

The two passages above are quoted separately. Each is the speaker's own words.

Trust and governance

The connections in this engagement were read-only.
Nothing changes until a named person at the customer approves it.
Asato does not negotiate prices. It equips the customer to negotiate.
Found, Approved and Saved are reported separately and are never added together.

Works with

Five source systems, read-only: identity, ITSM, endpoint analytics, security and contracts.

Compared with what the customer did before

Before the engagement CDW's licensing, usage and contract data lived in silos: identity in one system, entitlements in spreadsheets, contracts in PDFs, usage scattered across admin consoles. A manual audit would have delivered its answer after the renewal negotiation closed.

Questions

How much did the customer save?

No Saved figure is published. All of the story's savings figures are Found: about 15% of productivity-suite spend with inactive or invalid accounts, 150+ long-tail candidates to freeze or reuse, and about 1,200 unapproved applications.

How long did it take?

Four weeks, from the first connection to findings ready for the CIO, across five source systems. More than 50,000 records were normalized in the first week.

What is still open?

No open item is published for this story. No Approved or Saved figure is published either, so every savings figure here is Found.

Who is the customer?

CDW. The customer is named with its consent.

What did Asato connect to?

Five source systems, read-only: identity, ITSM, endpoint analytics, security and contracts.

Next step

The Asset Clarity Report covers one area in one week, with read-only access. If it finds no savings, you pay nothing. Request it at https://www.asato.ai/talk-to-sales.

Last updated: 2026-10-06