"Cost reduction strategies are top of mind, along with innovation through collaboration, for C level executives in businesses and governments. Negotiating a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and
understanding the alternatives customers have available to them is one of the most frequent consulting requests we receive. Project Liberate, a no-charge service offering from IBM, specializes in this - identifying opportunities for reducing the expenditure on Microsoft licensing by showing customers alternative ways to purchase the same products from Microsoft and free up budgets for other capital investments. This whitepaper captures the lessons learned from various Project Liberate engagements worldwide and presents best practices from these case studies as well as advice on negotiating strategies."
Project Liberate: An IBM complimentary Consulting Engagement to help customers understand alternatives
when negotiating a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement
Reduce software license expenses
Case studies from Project Liberate engagements show
ways to reduce Microsoft software licensing costs without
changing the Microsoft products you use today
(www.ibm.com/software/info/liberate)
contact ID: liberate@us.ibm.com
Percy Vier, Executive Consultant, Project Liberate WW Leader, IBM Dr Umesh Harigopal, Managing Partner, Ecognize Oil Search Limited
Executive Summary 1 Microsoft Enterprise Agreements 2 Challenges when evaluating 3 alternatives How Project Liberate Helps free 6 up IT Budget Why Worry about this now? 7 Recommendations when 8 negotiating a Microsoft Agreement What Next? 9 References 10
Executive Summary Cost reduction strategies are top of mind, along with Why should you read this? innovation through collaboration, for C level executives > Signing or renewing a Microsoft Enterprise in businesses and governments. Many organizations, Agreement and need to understand your with more than 250 Microsoft users, have signed up for alternatives. Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EA) covering various > Seeking best practices in Microsoft software desktop and server software products, Client Access procurement strategies Licenses (CALs) for the servers and upgrade protection for these products. > Interested in IT cost reduction strategies Negotiating a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and > Seeking to free up IT funds to execute understanding the alternatives customers have available mission critical initiatives to them is one of the most frequent consulting requests > Challenged by Microsoft Vista and Office we receive. Based on our experience, customers who 2007 upgrade decision point understand their alternatives have saved 30 to 70% > Concerned about proprietary formats, either on their renewals or by not signing an EA. This is proprietary repositories, and vendor lock-ins because the Enterprise Agreement bundles dominant market products like Windows and Office with collaboration products and customers have difficulty finding accurate, complete information from Microsoft resellers or from Microsoft's public licensing information. Because they may be unaware of all their options, customers have limited negotiation power when faced with renewing an Enterprise Agreement. Several IT Analysts [3] offer reports and workshops on this topic - an alternate procurement strategy that may help you free up a significant amount of your IT budget. Project Liberate, a no-charge service offering from IBM, specializes in this - identifying opportunities for reducing the expenditure on Microsoft licensing by showing customers alternative ways to purchase the same products from Microsoft and free up budgets for other capital investments. IBM has extensive experience across different industry verticals and geographies, via the Project Liberate service offering. Based on our engagements, more than 600 businesses & governments have estimated savings of more than US $3.0 B over the past 3 years by engaging IBM's Project Liberate consultants. Componentization strategies along with the balancing act between fixed and variable costs when executed in conjunction with Project Liberate can optimize cost structures. This whitepaper captures the lessons learned from various Project Liberate engagements worldwide and presents best practices from these case studies as well as advice on negotiating strategies. The information is based on publicly available data sources (which are subject to change as offerings change), customer feedback, and IBM's own experience in dealing with these offerings. The following table provides an example of the analysis results for a customer with 1000 desktop users. It shows the options available to the customer when negotiating an Enterprise Agreement, using the Select agreement as an alternative. Depending on the options chosen in this example, customers can save between 37 and 61% of what they would have paid if they renewed the EA as is. Savings vs. % SavingUsers 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total Cost renewing EA vs. EARenew EA 1000 247,293 247,293 247,293 247,293 989,172
Select Option 1 1000 156,132 156,132 156,132 156,132 624,528 364,644 37%
Select Option 2 1000 111,800 111,800 111,800 111,800 447... [download for more]
