Driving cost savings with packaged software vendors
Well, we're not exactly seeing agressive price
drops, but we are looking for ways to either cut or control growth of
software costs. Some specifics:
- Understand how the software is licensed.
- If it's by concurrent users, actively monitor the number of
users during peak times. Make sure you are paying maintenance only on
the number of users that really attach - not the number of named
users.
- If it's by processor count or power, watch out for server
upgrades - you may get stuck with an increase. Validate with the
vendor if you can use something like WSRM
to limit the application to a single processor, thus staying within
the spirit of your agreement.
- If it's by named users, get in the habit of auditing your
user file - it's rare that the HR processes for employees leaving the
company are in sync with every user list in the company.
- Suspend or stop maintenance payments
- Suspend, meaning stop paying maintenance this year for some
of all of your licenses, and pick it up again next year. Read your
license agreement carefully hoever, some vendors specifically prohibit
this without paying back maintenance
- Just say no, and stop paying maintenance. Most software is
purchased once, and the annual $$ are all maintenance payments. Heck,
if you've heavily modified the software and never intend to upgrade,
and never call the support line - just stop!