Timing as they say, is everything. Nowhere is this more evident than in the strategic technology supplier arena. When most of your budget is consumed by less than 10 suppliers, knowing everything there is to know about them is critical. Most of our client’s don’t have time to be experts on every one of them, but that’s ok…that’s why we’re here and it’s what we do.
We’ve outlined in a short summary below, what your organization needs to be looking out for right now. With many of these strategic suppliers, the window of time is small but the opportunities are great, to drive value and cost savings for 2016 and beyond.
- Oracle
May is the Fiscal Year-End (FYE) for Oracle (and its biggest month for both renewals and new licensing revenue) - and that is true on both Apps and Tech. Most Oracle customers have more licensing capacity than they actually need, and are not paying market optimized rates for what they do have. In addition, the annual renewal cycle is one of the few times you have to effectively manage your Oracle entitlements, although there are many restrictions on what you can do. The time is now to find out if you have an opportunity to drive savings opportunities with Oracle this year as they look to close out their fiscal year. We can help you navigate the best possible path to savings and value.
- Microsoft
June is the FYE for Microsoft (and similarly, its biggest month for renewals and new license deals). For many of you going through transitions to the cloud for email and productivity tools among other areas – the stakes have never been higher! Without expert help, we are seeing Microsoft customers lose ownership interest in the software assets without commensurate relief in cost. This limits flexibility and locks in a higher cost structure. We can help you navigate these transformations and ensure you are optimizing value and cost for the organization for the long term. To see how your Microsoft agreements stack up to our market assessment, take our Quiz to determine if you can do more.
- Cisco
July is Cisco's FYE and while Cisco doesn't really have a big hockey stick sales approach for their FYE like some other suppliers do, mostly because so much of their business is channel driven and done as the needs actually arise, this time of year serves as a good reminder to review your Cisco agreements for opportunities to cut costs. For example, many SMARTNet renewals are rarely cost optimized coming from Cisco and their channel partners, few are aligned to the precise support needs of the organization, and most clients don’t realize there are other effective means to meet the needs of the business that allow for both lower costs and higher solution value for hardware service and support. As a result of these three factors, we routinely see 50% SAVINGS on these agreements – so please let us take a look. This does not have to be a routine ‘operational’ cost as most clients believe – you can do something about it!
- Outsourcing
Outsourcing Arrangements (ITO Voice & Data Network, Datacenter Service & Desktop Infrastructure, and Application Development & Maintenance) and BPO (HR, Finance, Operations & Back Office Processing)). Historically, NET(net) has delivered monumental value back to clients on outsourcing agreements and relationships. What sets us apart on these in particular, is the how we can develop a relationship management plan that will create long term sustainability in the relationship, and provide ongoing supplier performance management services to ensure you maximize the value and benefits while minimizing ongoing costs and risks. Due to major technology innovations in this space, and the significant reduction of people power associated with these previously manual tasks, it is not uncommon for our clients to see savings between 20-70% while getting improved services and better business value.
- SAP
It’s hard to hear I’m sure, but our view is if you are paying any maintenance at all to SAP…you are over-paying. Due to SAP’s desires to (i) migrate its customers to the cloud, (ii) cut into the highly profitable database space of its chief rival (Oracle), and (iii) deliver an integrated solution that also captures more customer wallet share from providers like Microsoft and IBM, SAP has been aggressively promoting its own “in-memory” database solution (called Hana), and has been encouraging its customers to upgrade to the next version of its software, SAP Business Suite 4 (S/4), which runs on Hana (and no other Database); commonly referred to as S/4 Hana. The challenge with S/4, is that it’s another code base change, similar to what we saw with R/3. SAP has been positioning S/4 as “free” to Hana customers for a limited time basis. If not handled appropriately, however, this “free” solution could prove to be the most expensive SAP software ever sourced by a client organization. Many customers considering their options will unknowingly sacrifice huge savings opportunities by following traditional migration paths, but enormous savings are achievable with the advanced strategic assistance of NET(net).
This is a huge market vulnerability for SAP, but don’t take our word for it; SAP Chairman to the Executive Board Hasso Plattner says, “If this doesn’t work, we’re dead. Dead in the water”. With so much riding on this action by SAP, clients have an unprecedented opportunity to control the bargaining table and ensure commercial and contractual terms are highly market optimized. NET(net) is your partner in this effort. As a result of this upgrade and this new code base, the majority of SAP software investments are being directed towards S/4, and therefore, your maintenance service and support dollars are not going in large quantities to deliver further innovations for you, and most of the SAP deployments we have seen that do not have short term plans to upgrade to S/4 are highly stable, and thus the support investments you are making are doubly inflated. The SAP maintenance business model is now officially broken, and with a little information about your environment and plan, we can show you how much you can save by considering alternative approaches. Clients we have worked with recently have been experiencing savings of 20-80%.
About NET(net)
NET(net) is a global disruptive industry force for good and has the experience you want, the expertise you need, and delivers the performance you demand to help you save money and improve value. NET(net) is the world’s only fully technology-enabled consultancy exclusively specializing in full service optimization of the technology supply chain, bringing clients and suppliers together to create winning markets and winning relationships.
We help clients:
- Find Value in their professional supply chain through strategic sourcing efforts designed to align client need to supplier capabilities while leveraging our objective, evidenced based processes to deliver optimized supplier proposals.
- Get Value in a custom marketplace created through bespoke supplier negotiation assistance, leveraging our federated market intelligence, resulting in strengthened contractual agreements and improved commercial arrangements.
- Keep Value in their organization through proactive industry best strategic supplier performance management of the agreement, the investment and the relationship, resulting in more sustainable business partnerships designed to deliver long term sustainable business value.
With clients around the world in nearly all industries and geographies, and with the experience of tens of thousands of field engagements, we have helped our clients capture hundreds of billions of dollars of incremental value. Contact your NET(net) representative, email us at info@netnetweb.com, visit us online at www.netnetweb.com, or call us at +1-866-2-NET-net today to see if we can help you capture more value.
NET(net)’s Website/Blogs/Articles and other content is subject to NET(net)’s legal terms offered for general information purposes only, and while NET(net) may offer views and opinions regarding the subject matter, such views and opinions are not intended to malign or disparage any other company or other individual or group.
