Zuellig Pharma optimises Microsoft licencing and saves 20% in costs annually

Microsoft licencing optimisation

“We were paying substantial fees every month on Cloud as well as paying out a lot for Microsoft licences and knew if we were to right-size our Microsoft estate we could make some significant savings,” said Lee. “We were approaching our renewal and so had to act fast so that we didn’t have to wait another year.”

Zuellig Pharma chose SoftwareOne to assist in optimising its cloud expenditure due to its expertise in Microsoft licencing and its comprehensive FinOps practise. Initial workstreams shone a light on current licence usage and spend, helping teams across functions match the right licences to different use cases. This gave the team not only the data but also the confidence to drive an effective review and re-negotiation of its Microsoft enterprise agreement.

At the outset, there was some skepticism and uncertainty by some stakeholders that any savings could be made so SoftwareOne proposed working to a Gainshare model for the optimisation projects – charging only if savings were actually realised.

Lee was delighted with the outcome: “First we optimised our Microsoft licencing spend, saving a 10% annually, while still ensuring compliance with Microsoft's terms and conditions. We were now smarter and more deliberate about our needs – for example, we removed certain licences for people who were working in the warehouses who didn’t need InTune; for other users, it was a matter of downgrading a licence from E3 to E1. Our optimisation activities in giving the right licences to the right profiles and personas put us in the driver's seat for negotiating the Microsoft renewal.”

This work took only a few months, Lee comments: “What was the magic moment was when we saw the new renewal amount versus what we would have paid if we hadn’t optimised – and that was just for Microsoft licencing.” Commenting on the collaboration with SoftwareOne, Lee adds: “SoftwareOne’s willingness to help was evident, and it was very professional. We learned a lot which has also opened our eyes to areas to which we need to pay more attention.”

Cloud cost control

This success gave Lee the leverage he needed to embark on a programme of cultural transformation, moving the business from an on-premise to a cloud mindset: “It was an important moment, a change catalyst for the organisation to understand that operating in the cloud world is substantially different, that it requires new skill sets, new information and new ways of working.”

Enhanced visibility was key to the success of this cultural change and Zuellig Pharma launched a new workstream with SoftwareOne to develop a dashboard to support cloud cost management across the company. Lee said, “Not only were we are going to make it visible for everyone in IT, in fact, I decided to make it visible to everyone in the business so that they have complete understanding of the cost of running a business.”

Knowledge and education became key pillars of the work Lee and SoftwareOne undertook together to implement a FinOps mentality and maximise the benefits of operating in the cloud. Lee has elevated IT cost control as a strategic business priority, gaining recognition at the C-level and CEO levels. “Six months ago, nobody understood what FinOps is. Now, in less than half a year, we’ve established financial accountability, and my CTO and some of the leadership team understand FinOps which is great because we are on a journey to educate.”

As SoftwareOne delivered on financial accountability, and helped drive cultural change, it became the trusted advisor across multiple technology platforms for Zuellig Pharma. Work continues on optimising cloud services, focusing not only on Microsoft Azure but also exploring migration to Google Cloud Platform.

Future enterprise software optimisation

Additionally, the company is planning to optimise its SAP licences. FinOps policies and governance processes are being developed and rolled out, Together with SoftwareOne, Zuellig Pharma is looking at further scopes of work to develop more controls and tools that will enable financial management features such as cost alerts and forecasting capability.

By implementing new governance structures, providing visibility and control, and educating stakeholders across the business through its managed FinOps service, SoftwareOne has helped Zuellig Pharma transition from reactive cost management to proactive financial control.

Looking ahead, Lee comments, “We are actively working on implementing more controls within our tools, such as cost alerts and forecasting capabilities. These improvements will help us better plan and manage our spending – not just for now, but also for the future. While these enhancements are still a work in progress, they are definitely in the pipeline.

“SAP is another huge challenge for us, and with our renewal coming up at the end of next year, we know discussions can take a year. We’re now starting work with SoftwareOne to review licence utilisation and the overall licence structure with an eye to optimise our SAP estate.”