Slash Spending by Optimizing Your Software Maintenance and Support
Responsibly and effectively reduce software support spend.
- Perpetual software maintenance (SW M&S) is an annual budget cost that increases almost yearly. You don’t really know if there is value in it, if its required by the vendor, or if there are opportunities for cost savings.
- Most organizations never reap the full benefits of software M&S. They blindly send renewal fees to the vendor every year without validating their needs or the value of the maintenance. In addition, your vendor maintenance may be under contract and you aren’t sure what the obligations are for both parties.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Analyzing the benefits contained within a vendor’s software M&S will provide the actual cost value of the M&S and whether there are critical support requirements vs. “nice to have” benefits.
- Understanding the value and your requirement for M&S will allow you to make an informed decision on how best to optimize and reduce your annual software M&S spend.
- Use a holistic approach when looking to reduce your software M&S spend. Review the entire portfolio for targeted reduction that will result in short- and long-term savings.
- When targeting vendors to negotiate M&S price or coverage reduction, engaging them three to six months in advance of renewal will provide you with more time to effectively negotiate and not fall to the pressure of time.
Impact and Result
- Reduce annual costs for software maintenance and support.
- Complete a value of investment (VOI) analysis of your software M&S for strategic vendors.
- Maximize value of the software M&S by using all the benefits being paid for.
- Right-size support coverage for your requirements.
- Prioritize software vendors to target for cost reduction and optimization.
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 6 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation 1: Evaluate
- Call 1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
Guided Implementation 2: Establish
- Call 1: Assess your existing M&S coverage.
- Call 2: Review your obligations and options – value of M&S discussion.
- Call 3: Classify your software vendors.
Guided Implementation 3: Optimize
- Call 1: Value of your M&S investment – cancellation and third parties.
- Call 2: Create a strategy and plan to reduce and optimize M&S.
Contributors
- Mike Kozlowski, VP Applications, Old Republic Title
- Jomar McDonald, Associate VP of Technology, Adler University
- 8 anonymous company contributors
Looking at Risk in a New Light: The Six Pillars of Vendor Risk Management
Manage Exponential Value Relationships
Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
Capture and Market the ROI of Your VMO
Cut Cost Through Effective IT Category Planning
Design and Build an Effective Contract Lifecycle Management Process
Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR)
Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes With a Robust RFP Process
Reduce Risk With Rock-Solid Service-Level Agreements
Slash Spending by Optimizing Your Software Maintenance and Support
Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Strategic Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Security Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Evaluate Your Vendor Account Team to Optimize Vendor Relations
Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative
Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively
Implement Your Negotiation Strategy More Effectively
Evaluate and Learn From Your Negotiation Sessions More Effectively
Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk
Master the Public Cloud IaaS Acquisition Models
Essentials of Vendor Management for Small Business
Identify and Manage Regulatory and Compliance Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Identify and Manage Operational Risk Impacts on Your Organization
Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A
Identify and Reduce Agile Contract Risk
Improve Your Statements of Work to Hold Your Vendors Accountable
Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively
Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements
Master the MSA for Your Managed Services Providers
Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last
_preview.png?1721403516 "Review our research on Establish a Vendor Management Roadmap to Succeed With Autonomous Technologies")
Establish a Vendor Management Roadmap to Succeed With Autonomous Technologies
Price Benchmarking & Negotiation
Stop Wasting Time Evaluating Commoditized Products and Services
Ensure Business Alignment in Managed Service Agreements
Comparing Software Practices in Maturing IT
Run IT By the Numbers
Transform IT, Transform Everything
The Race to Develop Talent
Building Info-Tech’s Chatbot
Assessing the AI Ecosystem
Sync or Sink: Aligning IT and HR for the Future of Work
Building the Road to Governing Digital Intelligence
Bring AI Out of the Shadows
The AI Vendor Landscape in IT
IT Spend and Staffing Benchmarking
An Operational Framework for Rolling Out AI