Enterprise leaders face a pivotal choice whether to drive digital transformation internally or source solutions from external providers. As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, transformation is both inevitable and essential. Yet, many organisations are struggling to find the most effective way forward and find the right balance of success factors such as cost, speed, and efficiency.
Many believe the most difficult part is choosing whether to build or buy a solution – yet this is only the beginning. The real challenge comes afterward, when leaders must ensure the selected tool, platform, or system is implemented properly, adopted across teams, and scaled to its full potential throughout the organisation.
The cost of underused technology
Research shows that more than half of SaaS applications are either underused or left idle. This means organisations often spend significant sums on technology but capture only a small share of its potential value.
Software mastery works much like learning a new instrument: initial progress is easy, but true proficiency requires consistent practice, structure and exploration. The full impact of enterprise tools comes only when users move beyond basic features and uncover the deeper capabilities that drive innovation and efficiency.
At a surface level, most platforms can streamline simple workflows and provide quick wins. However, teams must learn to delve deeper into all the technologies at their disposal. For example, many tools may have customisable dashboards, automatable processes, or the ability to generate richer insights. These tools and features are pointless if they aren’t taken advantage of.
Shallow adoption levels the playing field in all the wrong ways. When every company uses software in the same limited manner, technology becomes interchangeable. In a time when new and exciting AI-powered tools are launched regularly, businesses must stay on top of the tools that best suit their business needs. Depth of adoption is what turns digital tools into products of true competitive advantage.
Building efficiency through focused tech stacks
A common pitfall for organisations is assuming more tools equate to greater productivity. However, the result is often the opposite; more logins, more onboarding, and endless training sessions that overwhelm employees. When teams are spread thin across multiple systems, efficiency suffers and technology fatigue sets in. Organisations that prioritise a select set of critical platforms and allow teams the time to develop true proficiency see faster, more consistent results.
When teams switch between numerous tools to extract, format, and reconcile data, they create friction instead of more efficient and impactful knowledge workflows. What appears to be a drive for efficiency often devolves into duplication, delay, and fragmented insights.
In today’s resource-conscious business environment, that inefficiency carries a steep cost. This is why enterprises are focusing new AI deployments around return-on-investment from these technologies. To ensure this ROI, tech stacks must be refined through fewer, better-integrated, and domain-specific platforms supported by automation and AI. Unified workflows enable faster business decisions, minimise errors, and strengthen collaboration.
Why depth of adoption is vital
Business leaders can inadvertently contribute to a more complex and inefficient tech stack by choosing to build solutions in-house when buying from a provider with domain expertise would deliver faster, less expensive, and more scalable results. Today, the risk has evolved. Failing to fully utilise the right solution is arguably just as wasteful as the wrong path to a solution.
Executives must champion adoption from the top down by shaping structured training, setting expectations, and creating accountability. When leaders take ownership of how technology is used, it becomes a genuine performance differentiator rather than an underused asset.
A call to leaders
The defining technology advantage of the next decade won’t come from having the largest tech stack, but from mastering the tools the business invests in. The organisations that will win are those that use purpose-built platforms, cultivate deep internal expertise, and embed end-to-end workflows into the fabric of their operations and across all teams.
Speed comes from depth, not from accumulation – and mastery compounds over time. The companies that commit to truly understanding and optimising the tools they’ve invested in will create an advantage to outpace the competition.
Kiva Kolstein
Kiva Kolstein is President & Chief Revenue Officer at AlphaSense, spending the last eight years scaling the company from a $10M startup to over $500M in ARR and 2,500+ employees around the world.
