Case Study:
Software Benchmark Assessment
Client Description
The client is governmental agency located outside of the United States with a total of three data centers and running about 3,000 MIPS.
Client Situation
This client approached ISAM with concerns about its software product costs due to it having multiple data centers and not being large enough to have negotiation leverage with the software manufacturers. ISAM recommended a Software Benchmark Assessment to compare licensing and pricing with other companies whose data centers are about the same size.
Process for the Software Benchmark Assessment
Once the software benchmark objectives were confirmed, the ISAM process included:
- Signed confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.
- Collected the client’s mainframe software licensing and pricing information.
- Loaded the client’s licensing and pricing data into ISAM’s Software Intelligence Database.
- ISAM fully catalogs the data in a helpful format.
- Compared the client’s data to industry “average” and “best in class” targets.
- Benchmarks were matched to client size and the complexity of the environment.
- Identified specific improvement areas and software savings opportunities.
- Developed and presented a report with specific recommendations for improvement.
- Analysis of total unit cost, functional unit cost and vendor unit cost
- Analysis of total product count, functional product count and vendor product count.
- The ISAM report also included suggestions for SAM best practices and tools to raise the company to “Best in Class” status for mainframe software pricing.
Results & Benefits
- The Software Benchmark Assessment was completed in six weeks.
- The client was able to eliminate software products that were functionally redundant.
- $2.3 million in excess spending due to vendor pricing was identified.
- The client was able to re-negotiate software licenses with the manufacturers.
- Total potential savings identified: $7.5 million.