Vendor by vendor optimization is a focused engagement that takes one supplier at a time and removes the waste from it. It is the natural entry point for most clients. A renewal quote lands, a budget gets cut, or a single bill suddenly looks too high, and you want that one vendor fixed now. We fix it, then we show you how much more sits across the rest of the stack. This is a buyer side advisory service. We are independent, we take no vendor commission, and we are paid only by the buyer.
What vendor by vendor optimization covers
For each supplier we run the same disciplined review. We map every plan tier you hold, every add on attached to it, and every active and inactive seat. We compare what you are paying against what you actually use and against current market benchmarks. Then we right size: downgrade the tiers that are too rich, drop the add ons nobody touches, and reclaim the seats that sit idle. Only after the baseline is clean do we move to the renewal, because negotiating on a bloated baseline simply locks in the overspend for another term.
The vendors we go deepest on
Microsoft 365 is usually the largest single line item, so it gets the most attention. We look at the plan mix across tiers such as E3 and E5 and the frontline tiers, the add ons, and the buying route, whether that is an Enterprise Agreement, the Cloud Solution Provider channel, or the Microsoft Customer Agreement. You can read the detail on our Microsoft 365 optimization pillar. We also go deep on the collaboration and video tools, where Zoom, Teams, Slack and Webex frequently overlap, and on the content and agreement tools such as Box, Dropbox, DocuSign and Adobe.
Why a single vendor review feeds the bundle
Here is the part most vendors will never tell you. The biggest savings rarely come from squeezing one supplier harder. They come from noticing that two or three suppliers do the same job. When we review Zoom, we also see that you own meetings and calling inside Microsoft 365 already. When we review a standalone storage tool, we see the storage you already pay for in your bundle. So every vendor by vendor engagement links up into the wider digital workplace cost optimization picture. The single vendor fix is real and immediate. The stack wide rationalization is where the money is.
If consolidating overlapping tools is already on your mind, our SaaS tool rationalization and consolidation guide shows how duplicate tools get folded onto a bundle you already own.
How the engagement runs
Discovery
We gather your contracts, your invoices, and your usage data for the chosen vendor. We do not need access to your environment to begin. We need the numbers.
Right sizing
We model the correct plan mix and seat count and quantify the saving from downgrading tiers, dropping idle add ons, and reclaiming inactive seats. This is where the fast wins live, and many of them land at the next true up rather than waiting for the renewal.
Renewal preparation
We benchmark your pricing and build the renewal position, including the terms that matter such as price caps, co termination, and the removal of automatic uplifts. We do not interpret the contract for you. For that, you use your own counsel. We give you the commercial position and the numbers behind it.
Governance handoff
We leave you with a simple way to keep the vendor honest between renewals, so the seats you reclaimed do not quietly refill and the add ons do not creep back. For ongoing control across many vendors, that rolls into our SaaS management and governance work.
What you get from vendor by vendor optimization
A vendor by vendor optimization engagement produces a clear set of deliverables for each supplier we review. You receive a current state picture of every plan tier, add on, and seat, a right sized target state with the saving quantified, a renewal position backed by benchmarks, and a short governance handoff so the savings hold. Everything is costed, so you can act in priority order and defend each decision to finance.
Because we are independent and buyer side, the recommendation always follows your savings. We take no commission from any supplier, so advising you to downgrade a tier, drop an add on, or retire a tool entirely costs us nothing. That alignment is the whole reason the model works. A vendor specialist is paid to grow your spend with them. We are paid to shrink it.
Which vendor should you start with
Most clients start with the supplier that hurts most: the renewal quote that just landed too high, the tool whose bill keeps climbing, or the vendor finance has flagged. That is the right instinct, because a focused win builds momentum and pays for the wider work. But the choice of where to start also shapes the size of the result.
Start with the largest line item
If you want the biggest single saving, start with Microsoft 365. It is usually the largest contract, the richest in tier and add on complexity, and the one most likely to be over provisioned after years of blanket licensing decisions. Our Microsoft 365 optimization work goes deep here, and the savings tend to dwarf any single point tool.
Start with the most duplicated function
If your pain is sprawl rather than one expensive contract, start where you run the most overlapping tools, usually collaboration and video. Reviewing Zoom, Teams, Slack and Webex together surfaces the duplication that a single vendor review would miss, and it links straight into tool rationalization across the stack.
Start with the fastest payback
If you need a quick, low risk win, start where idle seats are easiest to reclaim. Our license right sizing approach finds inactive seats that can be removed at the next true up, putting money back within a single billing cycle.
Whichever route you choose, the engagement is designed to expand. The first vendor proves the value, and the same method then runs across the rest of the stack, feeding the bundled digital workplace cost optimization programme where the largest savings sit.
Proof in practice
The pattern repeats across engagements. A right sizing pass on a large Microsoft 365 estate can return a six figure annual saving on its own, as in our Microsoft 365 right sizing case study. The vendor review pays for itself, and it usually uncovers more across the rest of the stack.
Vendor pricing and plan mechanics change often. Any figure we use carries an as of date and is checked against the current vendor terms before you act.