Software complexity costs UK firms GBP £32bn a year
Freshworks has published research estimating that software complexity costs UK organisations more than £32bn a year. Businesses reported regretting more than a fifth of their overall software spending.
Its Cost of Complexity Report links that regret to tools that take longer than expected to roll out and are difficult for employees to use day to day. It describes long implementation cycles, overlapping systems and pilot projects that stall before broader deployment.
Regret spans several major categories of technology spend. Organisations reported regret across 19% of customer experience software investment, 13% of AI and agentic tools, and 12% of IT service management spend. The findings suggest organisations often buy platforms for their breadth of features, then struggle to configure and integrate them into live operations.
The problem often becomes most visible at the adoption stage. The report describes teams switching between multiple tools, repeating tasks across systems, and waiting for approvals in different platforms. These frictions can undermine confidence in the original business case and prompt departments to add more software, increasing complexity further.
Delivery gap
The report highlights a gap between supplier expectations and customer experience during implementation. While 76% of vendors claim they can complete projects in under six months, 37% of UK businesses said their software projects took longer. The gap, it says, increases costs and reduces trust in delivery forecasts.
Businesses cited slipping timelines, skills gaps and uncoordinated project management as the main drivers of technology regret. These issues often overlap, with teams lacking the specialist skills to configure or maintain a system while also navigating unclear ownership between IT, operations and external partners.
The research also points to the burden complex software places on employees. It found 36% of UK staff face complicated processes and 32% report organisational complexity. The report links these day-to-day difficulties to workforce sentiment, with 63% of employees saying they are likely to leave their organisation in the next year.
Freshworks framed the findings as a warning about the hidden cost of expanding software estates. It urged organisations to scrutinise projects stuck in pilots and reduce overlap between tools that cover similar functions.
Simon Hayward, GM and VP Sales International at Freshworks, said: "For too long, complexity has been mistaken for progress, but in reality it slows teams down and hides waste. UK businesses need to treat simplicity as a deliberate choice, streamline overlapping tools, set firm timelines and scrap solutions that don't add value.
"Across Freshworks customers including Frasers Group, Hobbycraft, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Travis Perkins, we are seeing business and technology leaders go back to basics and focus on practical steps that help teams work better. That means simplifying toolsets, setting clearer implementation milestones and choosing platforms that are easier to adopt and quicker to deliver results. UK businesses should do all they can to reduce friction, refocus teams and make sure every pound invested in software genuinely supports the work people are trying to do. Organisations that act now and uncomplicate with urgency will move faster and get far more return from the technology they use."
The breakdown by spending category suggests regret is not confined to emerging technology. Customer experience and IT service management systems often sit at the centre of employee workflows, amplifying the impact of slow deployments and complex configuration. AI tools also drew notable levels of regret, with the research pointing to pilots that fail to move into sustained use.
Large organisations often make multi-year platform choices, making it difficult to reverse course when adoption problems emerge. The report says businesses are responding by reassessing what should remain in their technology stacks and placing more emphasis on clear timelines and ownership during delivery.
Freshworks said the findings reflect a shift among some organisations towards fewer tools and simpler rollouts, alongside a stronger focus on what employees need for day-to-day work.