Market research shows that one third of IT budgets is spent on management of applications, and that this part is increasing. It is therefore not surprising that there is growing attention for the economic aspects of both demand management (business responsibility) and application management (technical responsibility). This article describes the dynamics of costs and benefits in this domain and how they can be positively influenced. The subject is approached from an economic perspective. Next the division of roles between the three management domains (demand management, application management and technical management) is discussed. After presentation and explanation of market research figures we go into the key question of how organisations can get more grip on costs and benefits. Professionalisation of demand management and application management using the management models ASL and BiSL can make a significant contribution to getting the economic aspects under control.