Spend to save is a regular topic of conversation between Core and its customers. Organisations are realising the structural cost savings available through fully utilising the services contained within Microsoft 365 licensing agreements, as opposed to paying for and running comparable, or sometimes inferior, third-party products.
Over the years Core has developed a range of products and services that are designed to tackle some of the highest cost areas that organisations face in deploying and running technology.
In 2017 we deployed a Connectivity solution that we originally designed for FMCG retail customers into a Central Government department with over 200 branch offices. Our solution aggregates expensive connections such as AWS Direct Connect or Azure Expressroute and provides secure end-to-end connections so that a large branch network can utilise this connectivity. Core’s solution delivered the customer a £5.5m saving over its first 2 years of operation, a figure provided not by Core, but by the National Audit Office as part of a Departmental spending review.
There is a fair amount of work in delivering a solution and a saving of that nature, but there are a plethora of very easy and effective structural cost savings available through fully utilising all the services contained within your Microsoft 365 licenses, as opposed to paying for and running comparable, or sometimes inferior 3rd party products.
In 2021, we have helped a huge number of customers make substantial in-year savings, built the foundation for long term savings, and improved their overall technology position.
To help bring this to life, here are a few anonymised examples of quick projects we have carried out this year so far, listed in order of cashable savings achieved. Every single one delivered a saving in year one, which is important for organisations that manage budgets annually.
It should be noted that in many cases, there are also operational savings from a reduced number of contracts and systems to manage, and an improvement of risk position from enhanced integration or improved functionality. However, putting an accurate savings value on these is complex, so we have omitted that side of the equation for the purposes of this article. The savings quoted are direct Opex savings only.
This year, Core worked with a local government aligned organisation with 700 users on a project to switch on the Data Loss Prevention and Azure Information Protection elements of their Microsoft 365 licenses. The customer had been paying £200,000 per annum for a third-party product which did not have the same level of features as the Microsoft 365 native solution. The product could report on questionable activities for audit purposes, but did not offer the capability to control or stop the transmission of sensitive data.
Core configured and deployed policies for the Microsoft-based solution enabling the deprecation of the third party solution, before its annual license renewal.
Project cost - £30,000.00 plus VAT.
Year 1 savings - £170,000 plus VAT
Projected 5-year savings - £970,000 plus VAT.
During another project, Core worked with a public sector organisation with 2,000 users, replacing a top tier third party Mobile Device Management service with Microsoft Endpoint Manager, (formerly Intune). This product is recognised as one of the top three MDM solutions available globally. The customer wanted to make a start in moving users from their existing MDM solution to Microsoft Endpoint Manager, recognising that it might take three years to complete the transition unless they wanted to accelerate adoption through a forced migration. The customer had a regular churn of handsets that equated to approximately thirty per cent of the estate, per annum.
Core configured and deployed MEM, added it to the customer’s Apple DEP program and configured Microsoft Application Management policies to enable the customer to offer a secure BYOD solution to users who wanted to use their own smartphone for work purposes.
Project Cost - £20,000 plus VAT
Year 1 savings - £15,864 plus VAT
Projected 5-year savings - £127,052 plus VAT. It should be noted that the running annual saving for this project once the migration was completed is circa £40,000 plus VAT per annum.
A central government customer with circa 1,200 users, asked Core to help them move away from a top tier third party security product, and transition to the enhanced features available in the Microsoft Defender product suite that is included in their Microsoft 365 licensing. This product is now recognised as a top tier device security product and sits in the Gartner magic quadrant.
Core configured and deployed the Microsoft Defender suite with a set of policies based on NCSC recommendations, including a few small changes to accommodate the customer’s operational requirements, and managed the migration of users from the old system to the new via a script and change to group policies.
Project Cost - £22,000 plus VAT
Year 1 savings - £6,800.00 plus VAT
Projected 5-year savings - £122,000 plus VAT
After the economic impacts of the last 19 months, it has never been more important for organisations to exploit every opportunity to be financially efficient. These projects are examples of optimising financial efficiency by mitigating cost duplication, and as we have demonstrated above, it is possible to achieve an ROI position in year one through these and a handful of other similar projects.
If you want to explore what structural cost savings your organisation could make, contact the team at Core. We can hold an initial discussion with you and make a quick assessment on what opportunities exist in your environment, with no obligation. If you want to take the next step, we can look at running our Microsoft 365 Utilisation Workshop, where we can help to surface the information to build a project plan and business case to realise these savings.
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Many of our customers also find our Microsoft-funded workshops a useful way to fully understand the solutions in action, obtain buy-in from the wider decision-makers, and develop a controlled deployment plan. To see our range of workshops and to see if your organisation is eligible for Microsoft funding, click here.