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Cost of the Buying Cycle

Every technology purchase costs time before it costs money: meetings with each supplier, the work between them, procurement and legal review, and the months before anything goes live. Enter three things about your company; every other assumption is visible and editable.

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1,228 hours

of your team’s time a year on new purchases and ongoing supplier work

Example company, default assumptions

Enter your company

What This Calculator Shows

Each new supplier brings sales meetings, proposal comparisons, follow-up calls and contract review, and your people do that work on top of their day jobs. This calculator puts a number on it: the hours your team spends, what those hours cost your company, how long each purchase takes, and how much contract value is at risk each year.

How to use it

  1. Enter your annual revenue, number of employees and industry, or keep the example to see how it works.
  2. Read your results. Each one shows what it means for your company and what changes with TREU.
  3. Adjust any assumption to match how your company buys, then download the PDF to share.

Your Company

Revenue, employees and industry are all the calculator needs to estimate your technology spend and what an hour of your people’s time is worth. The example is a $2 billion energy company with 5,000 employees. Replace it with your own numbers.

Example company
Adjust our assumptions

Grouped by result. Change any of them to match yours.

Your team’s time

Based on TREU’s experience across enterprise technology purchases unless a source is shown.

Each purchase: 12 meetings; 72 hours of supplier meetings and follow-up, plus procurement 3 and legal 3: 78 hours. Each year: 6 purchases, 468 hours, plus 760 hours of ongoing supplier work: 160 in business reviews, which TREU joins; 240 on renewals and the coordination around them, which TREU takes on; and 360 on escalations, service issues and billing questions, which stay with your team. In total: 1,228 hours a year. With TREU, about 685 come back and about 543 stay with your team.

Typically 3 to 5

Costed at the IT leader rate

A one-hour meeting plus about two hours of preparation, clarifications and follow-up per attendee

Procurement hours: 3 without an RFP, 20 with one.

A conservative assumption. Many large companies run more; change this to match yours.

TREU client experience. TREU joins these reviews with your team.

TREU client experience. TREU takes on most of this time.

TREU client experience. TREU takes on most of this time.

TREU client experience, including the internal coordination around them. This time stays with your team: TREU is not the primary escalation point and does not do ongoing billing review.

Based on TREU client experience. Applies to supplier meetings and follow-up, renewals and the internal coordination on them. Escalations, service issues, billing questions, and procurement and legal review stay with your team.

Based on TREU client experience. TREU joins these reviews rather than running them, so your team still attends.

What that time costs

Hourly rates, including benefits: national median pay from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2025), with benefits added using the BLS share of compensation paid as benefits (June 2026). Replace with your own rates.

Each year: $150,504. Each purchase: $9,504 (IT leaders $8,856; procurement $312; legal $336). Ongoing supplier work: $93,480 a year at the IT leader rate.

What that time could earn

Each year: $286,538. An hour of core IT work: revenue ÷ employees ÷ 2,080 × 1.25 = $240.38. Counted on IT team hours only (1,192 a year), not procurement and legal review, which are not core IT work. Per purchase: $17,308.

Senior IT time is worth more than the average hour. In May 2025, median pay for computer and information systems managers ($175,140) was about 3.4 times the median for all workers ($50,980), according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, so 25% is conservative. The hour value on the IT work card includes this adder. That card overlaps with the payroll cost card; don’t add the two.

Time to get started

Conservative assumptions: a new project is worth at least what it costs, and these are the values one project defers, before its own costs. In Common Paper’s standard cloud service agreements (more than 10,000 contracts), 85% auto-renew, 84% of those require notice 30 days before the term ends, and 21% include an automatic price increase on renewal, most often 5% to 8%; negotiated enterprise agreements often allow 60 or 90 days.

Our estimate of the monthly value of each purchase: $185,278. In use: $185,278.

New project: $185,278 × 8 months = $1,482,224.

Renewal: $185,278 × 5% × 12 months = $111,167. Lost renegotiation leverage at an assumed 5% rate reduction: a benchmark applied to your spend, not savings TREU promises.

About 6 months to selection (published averages: 4.6 months to evaluate options, Gartner Digital Markets, 2025; 10.1 months for the full buying cycle, 6sense, 2025), plus about 2 months to contract and onboard (about 40 days to establish a supplier contract, APQC Open Standards Benchmarking median, accessed 2026; 18.8 days average supplier onboarding time, Graphite Connect, 2026, a vendor survey). Where MSA review is not prioritized, contracting can take 4 to 6 months (TREU client experience).

Based on TREU client experience: purchases close about 45% faster with TREU. Shown in months only.

In our experience, more than 80% of technology agreements are 36-month terms. Shorter terms would raise the monthly value, so three years is the conservative choice.

Leave blank to use our estimate: estimated technology spend with outside suppliers ÷ the agreement term (the share replaced or added each year) ÷ purchases a year ÷ 12.

TREU client experience. Typical range 5% to 10%.

How long the agreement rolls over for if notice is missed.

Contract value at risk

Estimated annual technology spend: $58,000,000 (revenue × 2.9%). Source: Avasant IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2025/2026, cross-industry median.

Estimated technology spend with outside suppliers: $40,020,000. Modeled from industry benchmarks. Replace with your own figure.

No current public figure for energy; cross-industry median shown. Replace with your own figure.

Value at risk: $3,441,720 a year, × 8.6% average value erosion through poor contract management, across more than 1,200 organizations (WorldCC and Deloitte, published 2023). Best performers lose about 3% ($1,200,600); the worst, more than 20% (over $8,004,000). An industry benchmark applied to your spend, not a promise of savings.

Industry benchmark for the industry you choose.

Software, cloud, telecom, hardware and services, as opposed to internal staff. Avasant IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2025/2026: personnel is 30.8% of IT budgets on average.

Going It Alone: What It Costs Your Company

Example company, default assumptions

When your team buys technology directly from supplier sales teams, a company like yours can expect, each year:

  • 1,228 hours of your people’s time, mostly IT leaders, in sales meetings, proposal reviews, follow-up and work with the suppliers you already use: about 7 months of one person’s working year.
  • About $151,000 in salary and benefits for that time.
  • About $287,000 of IT work the business doesn’t get, because those hours went to suppliers instead.
  • About 8 months from the first supplier meeting to the day work begins on each purchase.
  • About $3.4 million a year in contract value at risk.

With TREU: about 685 of those hours come back to your team, and purchases start about 3.6 months sooner. Based on TREU client experience.

Payroll cost and IT work given up overlap; don’t add them.

Hours your people spend on suppliers

1,228 hours a year

Your IT leaders spend this time in supplier sales meetings, comparing proposals and chasing follow-up across 6 purchases, and procurement and legal review each contract. Add the reviews, escalations, renewals and internal coordination for the suppliers you already use. That’s about 7 months of one full-time person’s year.

With TREU: TREU takes on most of the supplier meetings, follow-up and renewals, and joins your business reviews. About 685 of those hours come back to your team. About 543 stay with it, mostly escalations, service issues and billing questions.

How we calculated this

What that time costs in payroll

About $151,000 a year

The salary and benefits for the hours above, at national median pay for IT leaders, procurement and legal staff. It’s a real cost, and it never appears on a supplier’s invoice.

With TREU: most of the supplier hours move to TREU. Procurement and legal review stay with your team.

How we calculated this

What your company gives up in IT work

About $287,000 a year

Your company earns about $400,000 in revenue per employee. On that basis, an hour of your IT leaders’ time is worth about $240 to the business. Every hour spent with suppliers is an hour not spent on the upgrades, security work and projects already on your IT roadmap.

With TREU: TREU takes on most of the supplier work, so your IT leaders spend those hours on your own priorities.

How we calculated this

Time before work starts

About 8 months

The time from the first supplier meeting to the day work begins: evaluation, selection, contract review and onboarding. While you wait:

  • A new project worth about $185,000 a month holds back about $1.5 million in value.
  • A renewal that misses its notice date renews on its current terms, sometimes at a higher price, giving up about $110,000 of negotiating leverage.

Estimate based on TREU client experience, applied to your spend.

With TREU: about 3.6 months sooner, so decisions are more likely to land before notice dates. Based on TREU client experience.

How we calculated this

Contract value at risk

About $3.4 million a year

Industry benchmark applied to your spend.

Value leaks away through unclear obligations, poor handover from the deal team to the people running the contract, weak governance and disputes, and many of those problems start before signature. Across more than 1,200 organizations, the loss averages 8.6% of contract value. The best-run companies lose about 3% (WorldCC and Deloitte, published 2023).

With TREU: TREU checks the first invoice against the contract, then tracks terms and renewal dates for the life of each agreement.

How we calculated this

With TREU

TREU works with your team and each supplier to prioritize, follow up and set expectations, so requests don’t sit waiting for someone to chase them.

What TREU takes on:

  • Supplier identification
  • Scheduling and follow-up
  • Proposal comparison
  • Redline and paperwork coordination with procurement and legal
  • Supplier business reviews, renewal dates and renegotiation

Get the Detailed Report

Download a PDF of your inputs, results and assumptions. Enter your work email and the report downloads at once; we will also follow up by email.

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How the Figures Are Calculated

Your team’s time: meetings are suppliers evaluated times meetings per supplier; each meeting takes your attendees’ hours, including prep and follow-up. Each purchase adds procurement hours (3, or 20 with an RFP) and legal hours. A year is purchases a year times one purchase, plus ongoing supplier work. One person’s working year is 2,080 hours.

What that time costs: each role’s hours times that role’s hourly rate. Your attendees and ongoing supplier time are costed at the IT leader rate.

What that time could earn: annual revenue ÷ employees ÷ 2,080 hours × 1.25 (the 25% adder for senior IT work), times IT team hours only. Procurement and legal review are left out because they are not core IT work, so this uses fewer hours than the cost card. It overlaps with the cost card and is not added to it.

Time to get started: the months you enter; with TREU, the 45% reduction applies, shown in months only. While you wait: a new project holds back its monthly value times those months; a renewal that misses its notice date renews on its current terms, so the lost leverage is the monthly value times an assumed 5% rate reduction at renegotiation (TREU client experience) times the auto-renewal term. Unless you enter your own, the monthly value is your estimated technology spend with outside suppliers ÷ a three-year agreement term ÷ purchases a year ÷ 12, on the conservative assumption that a project is worth at least what it costs. Both are estimates: a benchmark applied to your spend, not savings TREU promises.

Contract value at risk: revenue × your industry’s IT spending share = estimated technology spend; × 69% with outside suppliers (Avasant 2025/2026 puts personnel at 30.8% of IT budgets) = estimated technology spend with outside suppliers; × 8.6% average value erosion (WorldCC and Deloitte, published 2023, more than 1,200 organizations), with a range of about 3% for the best performers to over 20% for the worst. Spend figures are modeled from industry benchmarks, a median times an average, so they are approximations; Avasant’s benchmark covers IT that supports the business, not technology built into products sold to customers. Value at risk is an industry benchmark, not a measure of your contracts or a promise of savings.

Sources: Avasant, IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2025/2026 (executive summary) and IT Spending as a Percentage of Revenue by Industry (2021). Deloitte Global CIO Survey 2016 to 2017. Definitive Healthcare (2024). Cisco IBSG (2013). PwC survey of UK law firms (FY2021). US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2025) and Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 2026). Gartner Digital Markets, Making the List (2025). 6sense, B2B Buyer Experience Report (2025). APQC Open Standards Benchmarking, cycle time to establish a contract with a supplier (accessed 2026). Graphite Connect, Supplier Data Benchmark Report (2026). WorldCC and Deloitte (published 2023).

Results are estimates based on your inputs and the defaults shown. They are not a quote, a guarantee or advice.

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