Most Companeis are Wasting Up to $500 per Desktop: How to Create a Difinitive Software Library and Drive Cost Savings

Most medium to large companies typically don't have a clue how much software they own or how much it is being used. It would surprise most CIO's and anyone who manages software for companies that companies are overspending by up to $500 per desktop on software that isn't required.

One way to address this issue is to create a Definitive Software Library (DSL) that inventories all the software a company owns, the costs and the utilization rates. The unfortunate part is that most companies don't know how to do software rationalization and usually if they do, they only gather a fraction of the total software that companies use. Avanade offers a service, called ACA Accelerate, to help companies create a Definitive Software Library (DSL) that is extremely accurate.

The premise behind ACA Accelerate is to collect information on the current state, which is done through a proprietary process, and then figure out a future state model for the company. The current state will show the current software inventory (including versions) with associated users. A cost is assigned to each software title and this will help a company create a dollar figure on the current state.

Once the current state is know, then the future state can be modelled by consolidating software titles, versions, functionality and such. When the final model is created, then a definitive software library is created and the total costs can be applied to the list. This is were you will find the savings that be achieved.

Typically Avanade will see up to $500 in hard cost savings through the software audit that can be added straight to the bottom line of a company when a company goes through the ACA Accelerate process.

An example of the cost savings on a single software package would be Adobe Acrobat Professional, which retails for $200/desktop. Avanade worked with a company that included Acrobat Professional as part of the standard Desktop Image. Could you imagine if your company were over 10,000 employees and you were paying $2M per year for a piece of software that 90% to 99% of your organization doesn't require or could be replaced with a free piece of software that accomplishes the same functionality. This would help drive significant savings for a company.

ACA Accelerate is approximately a 6 week process and the cost for the service will easily be covered by the savings. The outcome is that it will drive software compliance and provide a hard cost savings for a company.

A few other major benefits include:

• Report Functionality: the process delivers a great report with graphical representations of key metrics. This is great for telling the savings story to other key individuals in your company.


• ACA Accelerate is also great for a Windows 7 upgrade as it identifies software that should be retired, potentially re-written, virtualized, etc. The savings can be used to pay for most or all of a Windows 7 upgrade.


• ACA Accelerate can do hardware too, which is ideal for any upcoming Windows 7 upgrades to see if there are any peripherals that need to be replaced prior to the upgrade.


• Drives software license compliance.

If you would like to understand how Avanade can help you create a definitive software library and drive hard cost savings up to $500 per desktop, please feel free to contact Chris Hamilton in Calgary at 403-476-1473 or Email Us. Avanade Inc. is a global company with 63 offices Worldwide.