When IT cost-cutting pressures hit, looking at your largest invoices first becomes an instinctive reaction. This was the situation at a major manufacturing company serving the transportation industry. IT and finance leaders wanted to put their cloud software expenses under the microscope so they could stretch their IT budget, but visibility was an issue.
IT leaders knew they spent millions on their Microsoft®, Salesforce® and Adobe® subscriptions. However, they struggled to build an action plan without clear observability into how many assets they had, how efficiently each license was being used, and how many had been purchased above and beyond the corporate contract.
To cut costs without compromising capabilities, the team needed a more intimate understanding of their cloud software and user behaviors. Partnering with Tangoe felt like a natural next step, as the manufacturer was already lowering their mobile and telecommunications costs with the help of Tangoe. Having previously generated $1M annually in savings, leaders were eager to expand their cost optimization efforts.
Tangoe One Cloud for SaaS initiated a discovery process to account for every SaaS expenditure and expose license utilization. The solution revealed SaaS waste across 1,574 licenses, which either needed to be reassigned to new users or downgraded to a lower-level subscription. In particular, 498 Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 applications needed to be reallocated, 201 Microsoft 365 E3 licenses could be downgraded to E1, while 99 Adobe licenses and 46 Salesforce licenses also needed to be optimized. An additional 76 apps were considered redundant tools that could be consolidated for additional savings.
Tangoe’s deep user analytics for Microsoft 365 were of particular value, because the IT team could see which employees were assigned an E1 or E3 license. They could also decipher which sub-products were going unused – like Outlook® and Visio®. This granular insight guided the team in redistributing underutilized licenses to wring more value from existing technology. Plus, the team could now downsize without negatively impacting user functionality. Moreover, they would be better prepared for their upcoming contract renewal with Microsoft.
Today the manufacturer:
“Tangoe has saved us $183,872 in the first year, paying for our SaaS management solution in full,” said the IT Systems and Process Analyst at the manufacturing company. “We’re harnessing untapped licenses and getting more use out of the investments we’ve already made. With less SaaS waste and more productivity, we’ve achieved ROI within one year.”
Once installed, the manufacturer recognized value in hours and days, saving money by downsizing E3 licenses to E1 and merging newly discovered child accounts into the corporate parent account. To date, the company has achieved $183,872 in SaaS savings. Roughly $139K came from Microsoft licenses. Meanwhile $26K came from Salesforce expenditures and nearly $18K from Adobe. Additional savings are expected as the company consolidates 76 redundant apps.
Microsoft, 365, Outlook, and Visio are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Salesforce is a registered trademark of salesforce.com, Inc.
Adobe is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States, and/or other countries.
