"Is anybody using this?"

Written by Christopher Ryan | Jan 6, 2026 6:02:23 PM

Looking over a credit card statement I found a monthly media subscription that I wasn't aware we paid for. "Is anybody using this?" I said to my wife and one of my daughters. There was a brief discussion about watching a series, we canceled the license. This is not new to anyone reading this, we all have a handful of subscriptions, it's just the world we live in now.

From the media company's point of view someone is watching these subscription behaviors very closely. They were able to get someone at our house to pay the subscription....now we are probably worth targeting for renewal. This is called USER CHURN. It wasn't until I reviewed, and checked for use, that we made the change to the license.

This same cycle works for edtech and any software subscription we experience professionally. I have about 6 licenses I maintain for my business and I pay close attention to the value I get from the licenses. It's simple when there's only a couple licenses to consider, in schools and companies it's HUNDREDS of licenses. The inclusion of AI hasn't made these decisions easier, possibly just more expensive.

It sounds crazy after years in the industry, but larger school district will easily have hundreds of licensed software products they maintain. Some have been purchased for 15-20 years. The first three questions we have to consider:

What are we paying for?
Are the licenses being used?
Are they getting the results we want?

In 2026, I will cover more details about software licenses and user behaviors in both business and education settings. There are real time saving decisions and money saving decisions hidden in the list of products that we licenses and the use reports our systems maintain.

I'm committed to help leaders ask better questions when it comes to technology. We don't have the time or money to waste.

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