Vestas: ‘SoftwareOne is saving us €3m through SAM optimization’

Realized cost savings, cost avoidance, and risk avoidance contribute to Vestas’s SAM success

The company consumes a vast range of solutions, from the typical Microsoft and Adobe applications to the most sophisticated and costly engineering software such as Ansys, Autodesk, and MathWorks. Altogether, there is a license estate of at least 5,000 applications installed on 45,000 laptops.

With few formal software asset management (SAM) structures in place, Vestas had little insight into its compliance position. Without a clear understanding of usage, the manufacturer entered into vendor renewal negotiations at a marked disadvantage.

Vestas strongly suspected it was over-licensing and wasting money – but had no idea to what extent.

This is the background to its decision to engage SoftwareOne in October 2022.

“I took over the responsibility for SAM in May 2023, after Vestas had already brought in SoftwareOne,” says Pulkit Suri, Vestas Director and Head of Software Asset Management, “but I understood very quickly why management had decided we needed external help. My initial perception was that we had no control over our costs and lacked an overview of our software licenses. We had Snow Software but hardly used it, and certainly not in a systematic way.”

Tacking software license overload

The first phase of the project was to create a baseline overview of Vestas’s license landscape, giving the manufacturer a hands-on insight into upcoming renewals, optimization opportunities, effective license positions, and future software needs. From this baseline, SoftwareOne guided and advised internal resources at Vestas in accurately documenting licenses and gradually populating this data into Snow.

“This is ongoing,” says Suri, “and the goal is to use Snow as much as possible as a single repository – and for Vestas to get the most out of its investment in Snow.”

SoftwareOne’s engagement in terms of resources was considerable, and the team covered a lot of ground. This included:

• Right-sizing and aligning license versions (i.e. Standard, Pro, Advanced, and so on)
• Identification of overconsumption to enable software harvesting and user re-assignment
• Consolidate input and data enabling Vestas to remove software unused for 90 days as well as duplicates and games
• Helping ensure that Vestas only renews software in use
• Helping with standardization and optimization of agreements, benefits, and pricing
• Contract negotiation assistance on selected vendors.

The €3M in value realized to date is made up of direct savings, cost avoidance, and reduced exposure to financial risk.

To achieve direct savings, SoftwareOne optimized some 30 licenses based on usage metering data. This included cost engineering software such as Ansys, Autodesk and MathWorks, as well as more generalist applications such as Adobe, Citrix, and Lakeside. “The cost savings realized were €478K,” says Suri.

Cost avoidance of €734,000 was achieved through the introduction of SAM best practices such as proactively managing licenses and usage to prevent overspend or breaches in compliance.

Reducing risks with company-wide SAM protocols

However, most of the value created by SoftwareOne came from risk reduction, partly through the removal of the Make Me Admin tool which essentially gave everyone in Vestas the administrative right to download whatever app they pleased. “SoftwareOne observed there was a risk,” says Suri. “When I learned of this exposure, I was also very surprised and shocked. With the help of SoftwareOne and the full support from our cybersecurity team, we decided to remove this uncontrolled administrative access. We are not there 100%, but in coordination with the respective line managers, we are continuously removing admin rights.”

With the introduction of company-wide SAM protocols, Vestas now has an internal shop with white-listed software which SoftwareOne is constantly refining.

“SoftwareOne is helping us build processes in regard to buying software centrally. You can’t prevent everyone from buying software with a [company] credit card because Vestas is so big. There are 45,000 laptops to keep an eye on! SoftwareOne has been involved with finance so that every time they see a MasterCard being used for software, it will be stopped immediately. SoftwareOne helped us implement this process.

“Going forward, we need a better tool for admin access,” Suri adds, “because it’s absolutely required to run the business. We have raw numbers on who has access, and how many users have it, but what we really need is insight into what the access is being used for.”

Another issue in which SoftwareOne went the extra mile beyond its brief to support Vestas was in its dealings with a major vendor. “When I took over the relationship was quite bad, so I worked hard to repair it. During our negotiations, the vendor asked for details on the number and type of licenses we held, on how many laptops its software had been installed, and so on. Thanks to SoftwareOne, I had answers. I had proof. Then I received a letter telling me that we would not be audited this year which was welcome news. SoftwareOne was really helpful during this episode and provided us with continuous guidance.”

Fuelling ongoing success for Vestas in SAM

Summing up his experience with SoftwareOne, Suri says: “A friend in need is a friend indeed. We were struggling with our license estate, but SoftwareOne helped us optimize and make a start on our SAM journey which we are continuing with them. A true partner, absolutely.”

One of the next legs of that journey is to engage SoftwareOne to help optimize the Microsoft licenses, obviously a big job and due to its footprint across Vestas, one that would take up too much of the SAM and License Management teams’ time. The involvement of SoftwareOne is creating value and opportunities in many different areas.

“Despite budget cuts, I won exceptional approval for our continuing SAM project,” Suri concludes. “Management is beginning to understand that SAM maturity not only saves money but makes you leaner and more competitive as a business. And SoftwareOne has been invaluable in helping get that message across.”