Fig. 01 · Glossary
Shelfware
Also known as Unused Licenses, Ghost Seats, Zombie Subscriptions
Definition
Shelfware is paid-for software with no active use: licenses assigned to departed employees, tools abandoned after a champion left, tiers bought for features nobody turned on. License audits routinely find utilization around half of provisioned seats. Shelfware survives because renewal is the default and auditing is nobody's job - it is the first and cheapest target in any software cost program.
Nobody watches license waste for you - not the vendor, whose revenue it is, and not a reseller, whose commission it funds. An annual seat-and-usage audit, timed 90 days before major renewals, is the discipline that converts shelfware into negotiating leverage.
Human Renaissance glossary · operator-grade definitions · Research methodology
