How to identify and implement software lifecycle management cost savings

Software Lifecycle Management (SLM) is the combination of digitized procurement and software asset management (SAM). And while SLM is extremely beneficial to organizations looking to streamline their strategies and optimize their software portfolios, it is also a very complex topic. Due to the many commercial and technical issues that may crop up, different competencies are required to manage the software lifecycle effectively.

Right now, cutting costs is a priority for all organizations. As the landscape gets more complicated, it can be difficult to know where to cut back on software spend and reduce risk. Let’s take a look at how to quickly identify and implement SLM cost savings.

Think about the quick wins your organization needs

Lately, IT executives have found themselves with a rather urgent need to contribute to their organization’s cost savings initiatives. As an IT executive, there are questions you need to ask yourself to get the ball rolling. For instance, are you more focused on saving money? Are you more concerned with reducing risk? Are your goals for the short-term, or are you playing the long game?

The truth is, a strong SLM strategy would remedy all of those concerns, but you should try to learn where your weak spots are so you know what your focus should be over the next few years. Doing nothing only raises costs, as software spend typically increases by 8-10% year over year. Thinking about the quicker wins means you’ll be more likely to see success sooner, which is both rewarding and encouraging for your team.

Understand your current cost savings challenges

After you have identified your unique cost savings challenges and the timeframe in which you’d like to remedy them, take the time to dive a little deeper. It’s not enough to simply know the roadblock ahead of you – you should also have a good understanding of how it’s affecting the organization. Let’s take a look:

• Cloud Economics - In this case, your organization may have trouble visualizing your full cloud spend. This means it’s also difficult to understand which types of workload consumes the most resources.
• Application Rationalization - Your organization may find it difficult to identify and avoid the use of software with overlapping functionalities and to keep a lean portfolio so you can leverage volume discounts and reduce operational costs.
• Contract Complexity - It can be hard to understand complex contract terms and available use rights. You could also find it difficult to optimize purchasing conditions and options.
• Software Spend - In this instance, your team may have trouble ensuring and purchasing only what’s really needed and what’s really used.
• Operating Model - Your team may have trouble enforcing clear policie

The SoftwareOne approach

At the base level, these challenges likely happen because your organization doesn’t have the right knowledge and resources in place. The good news is that you don’t have to take them on alone, and that’s where SoftwareOne’s SLM Cost Take-Out service comes in.

Here at SoftwareOne, we have over 30 years of experience in the software asset and lifecycle management space. This means we know exactly where to look for underlying issues, and we want to share that knowledge with our customers. That’s exactly why we created SLM Cost Take-Out, a consulting service designed to help customers identify their greatest challenges and quickly cut costs. We designed this program from the viewpoint of cost reduction and avoidance, and we found that there are a number of corresponding levers our customers can utilize.

In order to overcome these hurdles and pull those levers, we broke SLM Cost Take Out into three phases: Diagnostics, Selection, & Execution. Through each of these phases, we aim to provide customers with speed, flexibility, and variability as we identify quick wins and rapid cost reduction.

Remember those quick wins we mentioned earlier? Once the process is complete, your organization can expect to see 2-15% savings immediately, depending on your maturity level. Then your organization can start focusing on holistic, sustainable optimization for the long-term.