In today’s market there is increasing pressure on businesses to reduce costs and ensure that best practice is being adopted to enable the business to get the most from their IT estate. By implementing a benchmarking policy, businesses can gain a comprehensive breakdown of the most efficient options for an organisation’s business strategy.
Often many organisations are not clear on the current state of their IT environment, their licensing entitlement and actual software usage. In effect they don’t really understand what they have, nor do they have a cohesive licensing strategy or understand the implications of all the licensing options available to them, which can make planning any new agreements or negotiations a daunting prospect. Adopting a benchmarking strategy is an effective way to combat this.
Benchmarking involves measuring different products, vendor agreements and technology implementations against each other, with the aim of finding the most efficient routes to achieving the businesses goals, whether that is cutting costs, ensuring compliance or conducting a refresh of your IT estate. By matching up products, costs and goals an organisation can make informed decisions about their software spend. When done well, it can provide a solid business case for whichever option is taken and give an organisation a much clearer view of how their IT estate is contributing to the business as a whole, avoiding those unnecessary costs.
Benchmarking also enables the IT Manager to understand all the options that are available to them and how they can maximise their budget. In the case of software licensing not only does this give IT departments the final decision over their licensing policy, but it also provides confidence in the choices made, and a business case for the selected licensing options. The service is most effective when a true value partnership between Trustmarque and our clients is forged. The reason for this is that only with a true in-depth understanding of the client’s future implementation strategy for the chosen vendor, plus budgetary limitations and growth/decline/acquisition/divestiture plans, can the results be fully optimised to their specific needs.
An example of where Trustmarque’s Commercial Benchmarking service has been successfully implemented is at Plymouth City Council. Plymouth City Council needed assistance with planning a number of Microsoft technology implementations over a three year period and engaged Trustmarque to review its Microsoft licensing strategy. Using Trustmarque’s commercial benchmarking and negotiation service, the Council was able to review its Microsoft software usage and determine optimal future licensing options. Trustmarque undertook an in-depth analysis which culminated in a recommendation and negotiation strategy for the Council which introduced a 26 percent reduction in costs equating to £494,000 worth of immediate savings.
