Software supplied through authorised distribution, with the entitlement discipline that usually gets sold separately — or not at all.
Contract performance review · Evaluation · Sourcing · Tech spend optimisation
Ensure right product and system integrators is selected. The work also involves reviewing existing partner work
Most organisations do not overspend on software because they chose the wrong product. They overspend because entitlements were never reconciled against deployment, renewals arrived without warning and were signed under time pressure, the same publisher was bought from through three different routes by three different teams, and nobody held a calendar of what expires when.
I hold a reselling arrangement through authorised distribution, which means software can be sourced through me directly rather than the client running a separate procurement exercise for something the advisory work has already specified. The commercial route and the counsel sit together, which shortens the path from decision to deployment considerably.
The transaction stops being a one‑off purchase order. It comes with an entitlement position that is actually reconciled, a renewal calendar maintained on the client's behalf, and someone who has read the publisher's licensing metrics closely enough to say whether the proposed quantity is right before it is bought rather than at the true‑up.
For smaller and mid‑sized organisations without a dedicated software asset management function, this is usually the difference between a controlled estate and an annual surprise.
What the organisation owns today against what it has deployed, publisher by publisher — usually the first time the two have been compared.
The same publisher bought once, at one quantity, on one agreement, instead of piecemeal across departments.
Quotation and fulfilment through authorised distribution, with pricing shown against the client's direct and alternative routes.
A maintained calendar of expiries with notice well ahead of each, so renewals are negotiated rather than accepted.
Deployment monitored against entitlement through the term, so the annual reconciliation holds no surprises.
Reading the publisher's counting rules closely — users, cores, environments, indirect access — before quantity is committed.
Collect agreements, purchase records and deployment data. Reconcile them. Report the gap in both directions — under-licensed exposure and shelfware alike.
Remove duplicate tooling, right-size quantities to actual use, and decide what should be retired rather than renewed.
Obtain distributor pricing against the rationalised requirement, presented alongside the client's alternative routes to purchase.
Placement, licence key delivery, and registration of entitlements against the client's own records rather than mine.
Renewal calendar maintained, deployment tracked against entitlement, and notice given ahead of each expiry while there is still negotiating room.