Cost Savings on a New Microsoft EA
The Challenge
Following a merger and acquisition with Stroud and Swindon Building Society, Coventry Building Society needed to ensure it had a clear view of its assets before entering into a new licensing agreement with software vendor Microsoft.
Solution
By using the Commercial Benchmarking service Coventry Building Society was able to implement a revised Enterprise Agreement that offered greater flexibility and substantial cost savings for the larger IT estate, whilst also saving its team at least one month in time.
The merger of Coventry Building Society with Stroud and Swindon Building Society transformed the organisation’s IT estate, adding 488 desktops to the existing 1400. Following the acquisition Coventry developed a set of strategic objectives that it needed to meet over a 3 to 6 year time frame to help grow the business. One of its key goals was consolidating the newly merged IT estate and ensuring that all the software was appropriately licensed. Stroud and Swindon had not maintained Software Assurances on its licences and the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement that Coventry had was due for renewal, therefore this was the perfect opportunity to consolidate all licences into one agreement.
Our Approach
Coventry Building Society had an existing relationship with Trustmarque, having used it to procure the company’s previous licensing agreement three years ago. Therefore the organisation felt confident that Trustmarque would provide honest, well informed advice on the best solutions
available.
Trustmarque’s Commercial Benchmarking service, which provides organisations with a comprehensive breakdown of the most efficient licensing options for their business strategy, was selected by Coventry to help it to gain a clear picture of all the options available. John Stevenson expands: “This was the first time that we had used the Commercial Benchmarking service but given the significant changes in our requirements we decided it would be helpful to gain greater insight into the various options available to us so that we could make an informed choice.”
Knowing Your Options
From start to finish the project took six months, however a considerable amount of this time was spent on due diligence. Trustmarque helped Coventry with the process of asset discovery and licence review, working with the organisation to map out its technology needs over a 3 to 6 year period. By enlisting Trustmarque’s Commercial Benchmarking service, Coventry received a comprehensive breakdown of the most efficient licensing options, providing them with a solid business case for the selected agreement. This was particularly important given that the requirements of the organisation had changed significantly following the merger and that it was looking to make substantial savings. Trustmarque then compared this to Microsoft’s roadmap to ascertain which agreement would provide the best fit. By utilising the Benchmarking service Coventry was presented with 12 viable licensing options. Trustmarque provided background information on each of these options and Coventry was able to reduce this choice down to four, before selecting a renewed Enterprise Agreement.
John Stevenson expands; “We were extremely impressed with the breadth and depth of knowledge that Trustmarque provided. They were able to come up with far more viable licensing options than we could have done ourselves. Plus Trustmarque spent considerable time exploring the different agreements and in all saved at least one month of our time.”
Key Benefits
- Consolidated all licensing into a new agreement
- Made considerable cost savings
- A long-term plan for future technology implementation
Benefits
By selecting the new agreement Coventry Building Society has achieved its goal to consolidate all its licensing into a new agreement which covers its acquired assets, as well as making considerable cost savings. John Stevenson explains: “By using this service we were able to make substantial cost savings and stay within our licensing budget, which was vitally important. We could not have achieved this without Trustmarque’s expertise; the team worked closely with us to identify the best fit solution and we now have all our licences in one agreement. Aside from cost savings, Trustmarque was also able to negotiate the terms of the agreement and devise a better licensing model. This has allowed us more flexibility with our deployment plans, because we now have the option to call off agreements at certain points to meet our longer-term strategy and goals.”
Next Steps
Coventry now has a clear view of its licensing position and a long-termplan for its future technology implementation thanks to Trustmarque’s Software Procurement Consultancy team. John Stevenson sums up his experience: “We were very happy with the Commercial Benchmarking service, it was a good exercise to go through and we would recommend it to other organisations. We will definitely be enlisting the services of Trustmarque in the future.”
“By using this service we were able to make substantial cost savings and stay within our licensing budget, which was vitally important. We could not have achieved this without Trustmarque’s expertise.”
– John Stevenson, Head of IT Service Delivery at Coventry Building Society
Why Trustmarque?
Having worked with Trustmarque for over three years Coventry Building Society was confident it had the licensing knowledge and Microsoft relationship to deliver the best solution.
