How Lumos Uses Lumos to Build the CIO-CFO Partnership

Welcome to the fourth installment of our "How Lumos Uses Lumos" series, where we take you behind the scenes to show how our own IT team uses Lumos to drive impact across the business. In this chapter, we're zooming in on a particularly powerful outcome: how Lumos helps strengthen the partnership between our CIO and CFO by aligning security, efficiency, and spend.

Modern IT isn't just about uptime or tickets closed. It's about providing visibility and control that directly inform business decisions. When IT leaders and finance leaders speak the same language – rooted in real data –budget conversations become strategic, not reactive. At Lumos, we use our own platform to create that shared language.

If you would like to read our previous posts in this series, you can find them below:

• Part One: How Lumos Uses Lumos to Scale IT via Process Automation: Onboarding, Offboarding, and Birthright Access
• Part Two: How Lumos Uses Lumos to Empower End Users with Self-Service
• Part Three: How Lumos Uses Lumos to Reduce Organizational Risk via Effective Governance

Visibility That Drives Action

In any modern organization, visibility into who has access to what, and why, isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s foundational to both security and operational efficiency. At Lumos, we use our own platform to gain deep, continuous insight into app usage, shadow IT, and license optimization. This visibility doesn’t just sit in a dashboard; it empowers our IT and security teams to take meaningful action, reduce risk, and drive smarter decisions across the business.

Discovering Shadow IT and Unused Licenses

One of the most powerful capabilities Lumos delivers internally is surfacing the entire SaaS landscape in our environment, approved or not. By integrating with Google OAuth, Okta, and other authentication sources, Lumos provides us with a full list of apps employees are logging into; whether those apps were procured officially or adopted informally.

With that data in hand, our IT team can quickly flag unapproved or risky apps that fall outside the sanctioned stack. Just as critically, we can review license usage to identify underutilized tools and consolidate redundant vendors. This level of visibility gives us the power to proactively manage spend, reduce tool sprawl, and minimize risk – all without relying on a patchwork of spreadsheets or third-party license trackers.

Insights That Surprise, and Empower

Even for a company building the tool, using Lumos has surfaced its own surprises. One of the most eye-opening moments was seeing just how many shadow IT apps were actively in use, and how many licenses were sitting idle or underutilized. These insights aren’t one-off reports; they’re part of an ongoing feedback loop that shapes how we manage apps, access, and vendors.

Lumos doesn’t just show us what’s happening; it helps us act on it. We use these insights to inform vendor rationalization, renegotiate contracts, reduce overlapping tools, and align our security posture around what’s actually in use – not just what’s on paper.

Operational Clarity, Strategic Alignment

The impact of these capabilities isn’t limited to IT. When our CFO sees which tools are truly driving value – and which are sitting idle – budget planning becomes more precise. It’s no longer a guessing game or a quarterly scramble to find savings. Instead, it’s a strategic collaboration between CIO and CFO: rooted in data, aligned to goals, and proactive instead of reactive.

This clarity also empowers our IT team to have better conversations with department heads and app owners. When we can show real usage patterns and access trends, it’s easier to make the case for consolidating vendors or shifting licensing tiers. These aren’t just savings opportunities; they’re security wins, too.

A New Kind of Partnership

The CIO-CFO relationship is evolving, and Lumos is helping lead the way. With real-time insights, actionable intelligence, and automated workflows, Lumos equips IT and security leaders to drive financial outcomes while strengthening governance.

We built Lumos to solve identity governance challenges, but along the way, we discovered it’s also a powerful bridge between technology and finance. When visibility drives action, and action drives alignment, your organization moves faster, spends smarter, and secures better.

Curious how Lumos can help you power your own CIO-CFO partnership? Book a demo and see what visibility in action looks like.