Effective software cost optimization: Intero Consulting's award-winning approach

In today's business world, optimizing software costs is critical to staying competitive and improving financial performance. With an often three-digit number of software products, this is no easy task. And with an increasing number of applications, particularly due to the use of AI, mobile devices, the new possibilities of 5G and cloudification, this approach is more difficult than ever to implement.

With its approach of systematically reviewing software costs, which also won the Best of Consulting SME Award 2024, Intero Consulting was able to achieve significant savings here. The approach applies three core levers:

 

1. Contract review and recording: all contracts of active applications are reviewed and recorded based on various criteria such as metrics, number, price scale and duration. It is recommended that the data obtained is recorded and managed in a software asset management tool if this has not already been done.
2. Review requirements in the company: The actual need for software in the company is checked/validated through discussions with specialist departments and users. It is questioned which functions of the application are really needed and whether the current application exceeds the requirements.

3. Analysis of the results: The solutions from the previous steps are analyzed to achieve the following goals:

    

   1. Increasing the alignment of needs by changing software products.
   2. Optimal use of software already available in the company, which offers more possibilities than are currently utilized and thus makes other software superfluous.
   3. Decommissioning applications if several applications have similar uses.
   4. Development of a tailor-made strategy for software cost optimization.

 

This not only tidies up the software portfolio itself, but also aligns the solutions used more closely with requirements, while at the same time reducing costs by a significant double-digit percentage.

The project can be started not only by the purchasing department, but also by the IT department itself or by license management, which should be involved in the initialization anyway.

 

Intero Consulting is therefore the ideal partner for companies looking for ways to optimize their software costs. With our specialist knowledge and extensive project experience, we help to identify and implement potential savings in order to ensure long-term success.