Cost Optimization

Achieve significant savings and cost optimization with advanced workforce analytics

It’s impossible for IT teams to optimize costs and achieve cost savings without a clear understanding of what assets are deployed across the estate and how those assets are used by employees to meet their business goals.

Workplace analytics plays a crucial role in enabling organizations to rapidly improve productivity and achieve savings in both direct and indirect costs.

Delivering Where Traditional Software Asset Management Fails

Not all usage data is helpful.  Sometimes software products come with in-built metering, but these in-built offerings typically only provide an indication of how many times an application has been opened over a certain period, or the last time it was launched.

These tools lack important ‘active usage’ metering capabilities, so the information they provide is of limited use and using this partial view to make software license cost savings has limited scope.

Active usage metering exposes cost savings that would have previously remained hidden.  Bad practice by users, applications that automatically launch when booting the device, over provision of entitlements etc. all incur unnecessary expense that can be quickly cut, once the active usage data is available.

3 Critical Capabilities for Optimized IT Costs that Deliver Direct and Tangible Savings

  1. Right size the software estate: eliminate or reassign unused software; align license type to usage; downgrade from paid to free or read-only based on need
  2. Drive adoption of standard corporate applications and reduce category sprawl
  3. Identify inefficient processes and optimize to improve productivity and improve processing times

Acumen enables both immediate short-term cost cutting initiatives and ongoing cost management programs, through the discovery and capture of detailed forensic usage information associated with technology and processes across the IT estate.

Acumen enables both immediate short-term cost cutting initiatives and ongoing cost management programs, through the discovery and capture of detailed forensic usage information associated with technology and processes across the IT estate.

  • Needs-Based Procurement
    Stop paying for underutilized or unused applications. Identify and eliminate or reassign unused or underutilized software licenses. Remove unnecessary duplication and overlap – whether it is on-premise or SaaS.
  • Rightsize Contracts
    Inventory & usage data gives you the power to re-negotiate – see what you have, identify what’s inconsistent between your contract and usage, and optimize what’s truly needed across the organization. Use detailed usage data to buy and renew only the subscriptions you need.
  • Align / Downgrade Excessive Entitlements
    Different license tiers of both workstation and SaaS applications have vastly different costs. Often, you’ll have employees with advanced licenses who use just the basic features of an application. Rationalize license tiers, downgrading if appropriate, to save your organization money.
  • Drive Adoption
    Target, promote, and track application use. See which employees, teams, roles, and locations require help.
  • Accelerate Standardization on Accredited Applications
    It’s not uncommon for organizations to be running multiple applications that deliver the same capabilities, but there are huge efficiencies to be gained by minimizing category sprawl and eliminating those non-standard/redundant applications and consolidating to only one, including:

    • Bigger volume discounts from vendors
    • Lower support and security costs for just one application vs. many
    • Streamlined renewal efforts, so application rationalization and elimination of what’s redundant can create some major cost savings
  • Identify Shadow IT
    Surface the use of unauthorized applications and devices
  • Eliminate Process Friction and the Associated Expense
    Identify inefficient processes and optimize to improve productivity and improve processing times. Quickly gather data on the user journey and application workflow to understand where friction and delay is caused by functionality gaps or application switching.

Extended Cost Optimization Benefits with Workplace Analytics

Beyond the immediate ability to rationalize and optimize assets and processes across the IT estate, workplace analytics underpins the achievement of greater indirect savings associated with ongoing enhancements to digital employee experiences and digital transformation.

Workplace analytics delivers the measurement and insight to realize the anticipated benefits of digital transformation and cost reduction projects. Organizations charged with strategic objectives and initiatives that are designed to deliver cost savings and productivity improvements often fail to establish the right KPIs that can be measured on an ongoing basis and rolled up to deliver a dashboard view on the current status, risks, and opportunities.

See Our Resources

Datasheet

Acumen Cost Optimization

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Case Study

Eliminating Process Friction

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Video

Three Ways Workforce Analytics Helps to Optimize Your IT Investments

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