IT Support Contracts – Are you paying too much?

December 10, 2019

Q Associates – Optimising costs for hardware and software support.

Annual support contracts represent a significant cost for IT managers in all industry sectors. While costings for new IT procurements are typically examined in great detail, repeat contracts for hardware and software support can often be renewed without scrutiny. The result – many organisations are paying far more than necessary for their IT support contracts.The primary area of overspend relates to software support. Support contracts are often based on the software licenses that an organisation has purchased over a number of years, without taking into consideration licenses that no longer in use or yet to be deployed. Consequently, IT departments across all industry sectors are being charged significant sums to support software licenses that they are not using.

With many organisations annually spending six-figure sums on software support alone, the impact on IT budgets can be massive – particularly at a time when those budgets are already under great pressure.

For compliance reasons, it is essential that all software in use is correctly licensed and covered by an appropriate support agreement. However, unless the specific number of licenses in use can be accurately measured, finding the delicate balance between over-supporting and under-licensing is an ongoing challenge,

There are a number of ways a specialist organisation such as Q Associates can assist in reducing maintenance and support costs in relation to both hardware and software.

Through a comprehensive assessment process, the number of licenses actually in use can be accurately measured. Then, through the ongoing monitoring of license purchases, deployments and de-commissioned software, Q Associates can provide a clear view of software support requirements. This typically saves clients a minimum of 10-15% against their software costs in the first year.

In addition to these significant potential budgetary savings, clients can also be sure that their IT environments are fully compliant with software licensing regulations at all times.

Get In Touch

Contact Q Associates today if you have any questions or would like to discuss your IT requirements in more detail. Tel: 01635 248181 Email: Info@qassociates.co.uk