Signal 45% of cost owners run a dedicated expense management team

Summary

Deloitte finds that 45% of respondents who own cost and expense management rely on a dedicated expense management team as part of their practice. The report presents this as evidence that strong performers handle cost as an ongoing strategic discipline rather than an isolated initiative. Such teams look for savings through collaboration across functions and through improvements to processes. In the survey's comparison, cost owners use dedicated teams slightly more often than supporters, alongside greater use of cloud and AI. ABB illustrates the model, with a team embedded in financial planning and analysis that devised a gross-profit-per-headcount metric. The finding suggests that institutional structures, not only tools, underpin sustained cost control.