Software Long Tail track ensures savings up to 30% while reducing security and compliancy risks
Many of our customers have a so-called software ‘Long Tail’. In our field of expertise, this means that a large part of the software expenditure goes to a small group of large vendors, while a smaller part of the expenditure goes to a large group of smaller vendors. The latter is called the Long Tail.
As a rule, about 70% of software expenses go to the major software vendors and 30% to the Long Tail. Too often, only potential cost savings with respect to the larger vendors (Publisher Priority Setting) are taken into account, while there is also considerable profit to be gained in the Long Tail.
Software Long Tail track
Analysis
The analysis of the Long Tail is a complex and time-consuming process that ITAM solutions will gladly manage for our customers. We collect all contractual, financial, operational and application- related data necessary to gain insight into what software is installed, what is actually being used, what is the business criticality of the software is, who the contracts/stakeholders are and what the corresponding costs/cost centers are.
Issues
During the Long Tail research process, we often find that the information required is either incomplete or sometimes missing altogether. By delving deeper into the customer’s systems and maintaining contact with the stakeholders, we complete the Long Tail track as much as possible by bringing all issues to the table for discussion with the customer.
Advice
In the Long Tail, in particular, we tend to come across various recurring applications that have practically the same functionality. We also find, all too often, that software licenses are automatically renewed, even though they are no longer or hardly ever used.
In addition, software will be purchased outside the existing software portfolio and not in accordance with internal company procedures, more often than not with the company credit card. For certain vendors/applications, ITAM solutions recommends discontinuing software usage, cancelling or not renewing maintenance contracts, or even placing a block in the company’s financial system to prevent future purchases.
Result
Once the number of vendors/applications in the Long Tail has been reduced, we compile a list of approved vendors/applications. Any employee wanting to purchase software that is not on this list, will need to follow an approval process in accordance with a specific business case. This is to ensure that the situation does not relapse into its previously unmanaged state.
Reducing the number of vendors/applications results in substantial cost savings, as the license, maintenance and management costs all go down. ITAM solutions can produce a Long Tail cost saving result of up to 20 or even 30%.
In addition, the security risks that tend to accompany the use of outdated software are significantly decreased. The risk of non-compliance also decreases because there are fewer applications and less software vendors that have to be managed.
Way forward
In addition to operational advice during the Long Tail project, ITAM solutions also advises on the optimization steps that should be taken to prevent of mitigate the issues identified in the analysis phase of the Long Tail. This allows for the implementation of structural improvements in the Long Tail process.
More information
Are you interested in knowing more? Get in touch with the ITAM solutions team at info@itamsolutions.nl of +31 40 369 05 40
The benefits of a Long Tail track
- Potential cost savings of up to 30%
- Reduced security risks
- Reduced compliance risk
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