Cost Optimization

Find out whether there is an opportunity, before anyone promises one.

Technology costs usually climb for unremarkable reasons: services nobody canceled, agreements that renewed on their own terms, and the same requirement bought twice by people who could not see each other. Finding out which of those apply to you is evidence work, and it has to come before anyone puts a number on it.

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Before any of this

A number produced before the evidence is a guess with a decimal point.

Most cost exercises start by estimating the prize and work backwards. That gets the order wrong and it is why so many of them end in a deck. Here the sequence is fixed: establish what is true, compare it to the market, then decide whether anything is worth doing.

Only then does anything here become the right answer, and sometimes the answer is that nothing needs to change.

The distinction that matters

A variance is not a saving.

A benchmark can show you are paying more than the market appears to pay. That is a question, not a result. Whether it converts into money depends on how long the term has left, what exit costs, what the switch would disrupt, and whether the higher rate is buying something you actually need.

So we do not present variance as savings, and we do not put a figure on an opportunity before the work that would justify it. Anyone willing to quote you a percentage before reading your contracts is quoting you their average, not your estate.

The same discipline applies afterwards. A change that has not been confirmed against a later invoice is a projection, and it stays described as one until the evidence catches up. How we grade what we know.

If the number has to survive a board pack rather than a status update, that is thefinance view of the same work. Where the evidence supports going to market, sourcing runs as the execution of the decision rather than as the way of discovering one.

What the evidence can point to

Seven outcomes, and one of them is leaving it alone.

Which of these applies is a conclusion, not a starting position. It depends on what the record says, what the comparison shows, and what your agreements actually allow.

Pricing improvement

Where the evidence shows the rate is out of line with the market for comparable scope, and the agreement gives you room to do something about it.

Contract restructuring

Same provider, different commercial shape. Term, commitment, escalators and the conditions attached often carry more cost than the headline rate.

Consolidation

Where the same requirement is being met more than once, usually because it was bought more than once by people who could not see each other.

Eliminating unnecessary services

Services still billing for sites that closed, capacity nobody uses, or a product that was replaced and never canceled.

Correcting billing issues

Charges that do not match the agreement governing them. This is the least glamorous finding and often the fastest to resolve.

Modernization

Sometimes the cost is a symptom and the architecture is the cause. A cheaper version of the wrong thing is still the wrong thing.

Doing nothing

A real outcome and a common one. If the evidence does not support a change, the finding is that your position is sound, which is worth knowing.

What you are left holding

What you have at the end.

A record of what you actually spend, by location, provider and service, with the source behind each figure
A view of how that position compares to the market, with the basis of each comparison stated
The variances that are worth examining, separated from the ones that are explained by something you already knew
A recommendation an advisor will put their name on, with the alternatives that were considered and rejected
Where change is warranted, the work to carry it out and confirmation afterwards that it actually landed

Start with what is true.

Establish a defensible view of your environment and spend, and find out whether there is an opportunity worth acting on.

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