This Livingstone Group client is a global technology company employing over 150,000 people, based in offices, manufacturing facilities and technical centres across 40 countries. The company’s corporate IT function is based in Europe which supports the IT needs of all business divisions.
The technology company originally contacted Livingstone Group when it was looking for a managed service provider to help optimize its software estate. As a large, complex organization with a myriad of different software and technological needs, the client recognized it needed the expert help of the Livingstone team in order to manage its large portfolio of contracts across its multiple vendors.
Our engagement soon became focused on supporting the client through an imminent Microsoft contract renewal, including the optimization of the organization’s Azure cloud estate. Like many organizations migrating their estates to the cloud, the client’s IT and procurement teams didn’t have solid structures in place for managing policies, handling cloud providers, or truly understanding what they were buying, and knew they needed outside help to fully optimize the company’s cloud position.
The client was aware of Livingstone because of its reputation in the ITAM industry as well as for its impressive vendor expertise, its software and cloud optimization knowledge and skills, and for its engagement track record. It knew that, by engaging Livingstone, it would be in safe hands.
Assessing & optimizing
The client had already implemented a wealth of tools to help it better visualize its cloud usage and, while these tools were available, they hadn’t always been implemented optimally, so were not producing actionable insights. The client was therefore unable to make any headway in improving its cloud optimization.
Livingstone set to work with a dedicated team of cloud experts supported by Azure Optimizer in our Hub Platform. This is an integral part of every Cloud optimization service engagement. It integrates data from cloud service providers like Microsoft and turns it into actionable data that is vital for managing cloud related risks and reducing overall costs.
For this client, the first step in the cloud optimization process was to audit its current cloud usage. This allowed Livingstone to see which cloud features in the client’s Azure services agreement were being fully utilized, where they were being over- or under-used, and where they weren’t being used at all.
Livingstone also assessed whether the client had any dual-use rights – which would allow it to use existing on-premise licenses in the cloud – and also investigated any discrepancies between discounts secured for on-premise software that weren’t automatically applied to similar cloud services. The Livingstone team also made sure that the organization was paying the correct amount for each cloud server and instance by comparing the organization’s expenditure to the prices advertised in cloud provider catalogues.
Following this assessment, Livingstone was then able to recommend to the organization where it could optimize its cloud position by reducing spend on certain functionalities, without compromising operations, delivering considerable value to the organization.
Immediate cost-savings & long-term engagement
The client’s primary objective of achieving approximately $600,000 in cost-savings was met thanks to Livingstone’s comprehensive optimization program. The results were instant, with over 10 per cent of these savings realised in the week after Livingstone’s recommendations were put in place.
Thanks to Livingstone’s team of experts and the invaluable insights provided, the client was also able to identify further optimization opportunities. Initially, these weren’t something that the organization could execute due to organizational constraints, but Livingstone’s experts helped persuade the organization as a whole, from procurement to executive level, of the considerable commercial benefits of introducing a company-wide optimization program.
For this organization, the biggest value-adds from Livingstone, in addition to the significant cost-savings, are the engagement, support, industry expertise and Livingstone’s ability to understand the client’s needs. These aspects are invaluable in helping the client drive maximum value from its assets across the board. In the future, the client and the Livingstone team will continue to work in close collaboration to drive further improvements, as well as to promote policy changes that will deliver even more value.