An enterprise organisation was running security and productivity software from seven different vendors at a combined cost of £873k/year. Each vendor had been brought in to solve a specific problem. Nobody had checked whether the problems still existed, or whether one platform could cover them all.
Diagram showing licence stack consolidation from £873,000 per year across 7 vendors to £391,000 per year across 2 vendors on Microsoft E5, saving £481,855 per year over a 3-year phased exit programme.
Seven vendors, three doing endpoint security in slightly different ways, none of them aware of the others.
The licence estate had grown by accumulation. Each vendor solved one problem when it was bought. Over time, capabilities overlapped: three vendors were doing endpoint security in slightly different ways. The contracts were on different renewal cycles. Nobody had a single view of what the organisation was actually paying for, or what each product actually covered.
The total: £873k/year across 7 vendors, with significant overlap. Not because the organisation needed that level of coverage, but because each contract had been signed by a different budget holder who never saw the others.
Full licence audit: every contract, every vendor, every capability mapped against actual usage. The finding was that Microsoft E5 (which the organisation was already partially paying for) natively covered the capabilities of five of the seven vendors.
The consolidation plan was built around contract expiry dates, not arbitrary timelines, so no vendor was exited early at penalty cost. A 3-year phased exit plan was authored with a per-vendor business case for each transition.
The result was a move from seven vendors at £873k/year to two vendors at £391k/year, with Microsoft E5 activated to fill every capability gap left by the departing tools. No service disruption at any point in the transition.
Complete inventory of all 7 vendors: contract terms, expiry dates, seat counts, and capability mapping. Every line item placed on one view for the first time.
Per-vendor exit strategy, capability mapping to M365 E5 native features, and a 3-year phased timeline sequenced against actual contract end dates.
Each vendor exit managed to its natural contract end, M365 E5 features activated to fill gaps as each tool was retired. No service disruption across the full transition programme.
Saved per year on licences: from £873k/yr down to £391k/yr, documented and phased across 3 years
Vendor consolidation: seven vendors retired down to two, with Microsoft E5 covering every capability gap left behind
Phased exit plan across all vendor transitions, sequenced to natural contract end dates. Zero early termination penalties
The hardest part of this engagement wasn’t the negotiation. It was building the inventory. Once you can see everything on one page: every vendor, every contract, every expiry date, every overlapping capability, the consolidation plan writes itself.
Most organisations never build this view because each contract lives with a different budget holder. The audit brings it all into one picture. That picture is the fix.
If you suspect your licence stack is hiding overlap, or you’ve never mapped the full list in one place, have a chat with us. Costs nothing, no pitch, and we’ll tell you straight whether a closer look makes sense.
or ring us on 07754 218 688 any weekday