Technology should compound advantage – not cost. Yet in the past 12–18 months I’ve reviewed too many estates where quiet price uplifts, autorenewals, and untidy licensing create an invisible drag on EBIT. Boards rarely see it until someone puts the spend under a commercial microscope.
Across categories, tech costs are rising 10–15% a year while contracts roll over and assumptions harden. Microsoft estates are seldom optimised; end-user hardware and niche SaaS are over specified; managed services drift 12 from value; and internal teams, pressed for time, accept run-rates as destiny.
None of this requires cutting corners to fix. With disciplined benchmarking, rightsizing and tighter contract hygiene, you can release six-figure savings without sacrificing performance.
At a legal firm, we reset a Practice & Case Management SaaS renewal: a six-year term with an annual break after 2 years, a committed delivery plan with fixed timelines, and a penalty clause – miss milestones, don’t pay. Outcome: £500,000+ saved over six years.
For another company, we replaced a rigid three-year Microsoft MSA with a flexible monthly CSP and right-sized users and infrastructure, delivering £100,000+ per year for three years. With an energy company an estate of £2.2m across 80+ services became £2m+ saved over three years – about 30% – through 75 targeted workstreams that cleaned up contracts, specifications and suppliers.
“Good” looks like optionality in contracts, live license hygiene reviewed quarterly, cloud discipline that commits where predictable and stays elastic where not, and managed services measured on business outcomes – not activity. Most importantly, give one owner clear stewardship of the commercials across IT, Finance and Procurement.
ERA is independent – we don’t carry vendor quotas. Our incentive is aligned with yours: a better cost base without degraded capability. If we don’t find value, you don’t pay. Most of the time, we do – and more than expected.
Don’t wait for renewal. Mid-term moves are on the table in many categories. If this resonates, let’s talk and put your technology spend under the microscope.
