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Enterprise Software License Optimization Consulting

With licensing experts and price benchmark analysis on your side of the table, you can save millions on EA purchases and renewals.

For decades, IT vendors have profited from complex software licensing and subscription models. Today, these enterprise licensing models are changing at breakneck speed. And so are your IT requirements as digital transformation drives deeper and wider IT investment, and migration to the cloud continues with stunning velocity.

These factors can lead companies to spend more than they should on enterprise software license agreement purchases and renewals, and miss opportunities to reduce risk.

NPI helps you overcome these challenges through our Enterprise License Agreement Optimization Consulting services. For more than 19 years, we’ve helped companies eliminate overspending on EA purchases and renewals, and liberate millions of IT budget dollars. NPI’s vendor-specific licensing experts help you:

  • Understand your licensing options and their pros and cons
  • Understand the cost and licensing implications of environmental factors (for example, virtualization, indirect access and core vs. processor)
  • Develop decision-support cost models for enterprise software licensing scenarios
  • Utilize all of these inputs to define a licensing strategy that is optimal for your technical and business environment for the duration of the EA term
  • Buy only what you need
  • Select the best-fit license types and license model for your user profiles and business model
  • Match costs to deployment plans
  • Build in protections that reduce risk over the term of the agreement, including compliance and audit-related risks
  • Define a vendor-aware negotiation strategy and align your buying team
  • For cloud customers capture negotiation leverage in the move from perpetual license to cloud
  • For large SaaS estates, identify specific, actionable cost reduction opportunities through right-sizing of license assignments and the liberation of inactive licenses for redeployment
  • Utilize price benchmark analysis to assure a best-in-class deal

NPI is not a reseller. We are advisors that are 100% focused on helping you optimize cost, licensing and risk in your enterprise agreements.

Typical Vendors for Enterprise License Optimization Services

Microsoft is the #1 vendor that clients bring to NPI for EA optimization services – it’s our superpower.

Other top software vendors include SAP, Oracle and IBM. For some clients VMware and Salesforce license optimization are a top priority as licensing has now reached a level of complexity – and spend – that requires correspondingly robust licensing analysis and strategy.

Mainframe software maintenance agreements are another important target for optimization. Usually these renewals are on autopilot, and multiple products are aggregated into a single fee. NPI performs line-item analysis that can reveal shocking overpayments, and material opportunities for cost reduction.

Subscription Projects

Subscription

For example, one client learned their IBM Tivoli spend was off-the-charts over market – but it had been hidden for so long under a broader, bundled maintenance fee that there was no visibility into this anomaly. That client was able to save over $500,000 annually on Tivoli alone.

The “usual suspects” in this category include IBM, CA Technologies, BMC, Software AG, Compuware and Allen Systems Group. These software vendors provide hundreds of mainframe software products (WebSphere, FileNet, Rational, TRIRAGA, DB2…) representing thousands of line item product codes (EOD92LL, EOD93LL, EOD95LL, EOD96LL…). Companies need an enterprise agreement consultant that understands the unique dynamics of mainframe software and cost reduction opportunities.

FAQ: How are NPI’s EA optimization services packaged and priced?

NPI provides these services on a fixed fee basis. We develop a custom quote matched precisely to your needs.

When Should You Optimize Your Enterprise Licensing Models?

Enterprise license agreement optimization can happen at any time, but the biggest drivers are true-ups, renewals, large-scale new vendor purchases and deal restructuring due to merger and divestiture activity. Too often, companies approach these events assuming their current licensing/subscription choices are the best model for their requirements and base counts are accurate. Surprisingly, in most instances, that’s not the case. Vendors introduce new enterprise licensing models and subscription programs (and pricing), user requirements change, workforce numbers expand and contract, interdependencies in IT infrastructure evolve – these are just a few reasons why companies should optimize their enterprise agreements.

If you have an enterprise agreement renewal or enterprise-scale purchase on the horizon, it’s important to begin optimization early – ideally six months in advance and at least two months. Sufficient timing, and access to NPI’s vendor-specific licensing experts, will ensure your enterprise agreement meets your unique (and evolving) user requirements at the lowest possible cost.

A Note About Enterprise Licensing Models, Enterprise Agreements, SaaS, and the Cloud

Many legacy “old guard” vendors are aggressively pushing customers to migrate to the cloud. While this can be a deal opportunity for those customers whose IT roadmap is aligned with their vendor’s, there is significant risk for those customers who are still figuring out their cloud migration roadmap. Meanwhile, vendors are also making changes to their existing enterprise licensing models, which can intensify the pressure for customers to move to cloud offerings.

NPI works with you to understand your cloud migration objectives, deployment schedule and user requirements to align your EA to meet both current and future business and technical requirements.

NPI also helps you identify specific, actionable savings opportunities to help you get the most out of your SaaS investments. Our SaaS License Optimization Assessment is a proven, painless and non-disruptive way to cut SaaS costs. Using standard inputs from your existing applications and tools, NPI performs a detailed analysis to identify cost reduction opportunities by right-sizing license assignments and liberating inactive licenses for redeployment.

Are your enterprise agreements optimized? Let’s talk.