The Viewfinder

Understanding software licenses and cloud consumption - Major US municipality

In planning for their future IT requirements, a major U.S. municipality needed a clear picture of their current environment regarding software licenses and cloud consumption

 

In planning for their future IT requirements, a major U.S. municipality needed a clear picture of their current environment regarding software licenses and cloud consumption.

Serving approximately 52 agencies with 14,000 users gaining the necessary visibility into existing assets, including their location was a daunting, near impossible challenge given their limited internal resources.

The municipality needed expertise, guidance, and a trusted advisor to address their challenge, and turned to their long-time partner Long View for help.

Having approached the client previously regarding the need to implement a 5-year Microsoft Roadmap and Sync Up Health Check powered by SNOW software, Long View was in the best position to provide the needed guidance.

Working in tandem, Long View’s Sync UP team for the Health Check and Microsoft Team for the 5-year plan, analyzed the current assets to determine where they could optimize the performance and value of existing technology. An essential part of this process was defining “true areas of requirement” to ensure current licenses were being fully utilized and delivering risk-free value with maximum cost savings.

Beyond finding the hidden value in current IT assets, the Long View-developed 5-year optimization roadmap has generated considerable savings of more than $725K in avoided costs to date. Beyond the realization of the cost savings, resulting from the initial true-up, there was a subsequent $2M in discounts on the Microsoft renewal. Additionally, the client was able to obtain access to the much desired cloud product that supported their consolidation, rationalization, and cloud-first strategy.

By partnering with Long View to gain much needed insight into their current assets, the municipality is confident in the performance and value that both their present and future environment will deliver.

 


 

SUMMARY

Challenges

  • The client had a small group lacking both the expertise and time to perform the required assessment.
  • With approximately 52 agencies, (golf, fire, police, etc.) and 14,000 total users, the municipality had no visibility regarding their current assets, including the level of their utilization.
  • Even though each of the 52 agencies had different needs, the entire asset base was under a single,
    monolithic contract.

Solutions

  • Sync UP Health Check powered by SNOW – implemented the solution on the client environment to provide full visibility of all assets.
  • The Long View team worked to educate the client on licensing and provided the needed support with their true-up to provide Microsoft with accurate licensing and usage details.
  • Long View collaboratively developed and implemented a 5-Year Microsoft roadmap, providing a detailed outline of what technologies will be needed to progressively meet the municipality’s requirements, from both a cost savings and asset optimization standpoint.
  • Working collaboratively with both the client and Microsoft, Long View helped to position the client for the future.

Results

  • The client realized a cost avoidance savings of more than $725K on a year 2 true-up.
  • Realized additional discounts on cloud from Microsoft which support the client’s cloud-first initiatives as well as their consolidation and rationalization efforts.
  • Confident in their environment – maximum cost savings and asset optimization.
  • Solid understanding of their assets.
  • A continuing partnership with a provider the client knows and trust.
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