Silver Bullet has helped many businesses and organisations negotiate better deals with their software suppliers. Our negotiation coaching has given them the ammunition to maximise their cost savings at the negotiation table. Listed below are just a few of the deals we’ve been involved with. If you’d like discreet negotiation coaching during your next software supplier negotiation, then contact us today.
CRM software cost savings:
Challenge: A major high street Retailer had short-listed a preferred CRM software vendor. The Retailer prided itself in its ‘hard-nosed’ approach to negotiation and had already obtained some good concessions and deep discounts which had so far reduced the vendor’s proposed price down to just under £1,900,000.
Solution: Silver Bullet was asked to review and price benchmark the latest proposal from the vendor and comment on whether there were any savings left on the table. Within 24 hours, Silver Bullet had delivered a Negotiation Summary to the Retailer highlighting that, depending on how the Retailer proposed to use the software, the vendor’s proposed price could be reduced by between £280,000 and £330,000.
Result: Silver Bullet’s advice gave the Retailer’s negotiators the target pricing and discounts to aim for. As a result, the Retailer was able to negotiate a further £304,000 reduction in the cost of the deal and they were also able to lock-in the discounts for 5 years.
Cutting your Database software costs:
Challenge: A food manufacturer and distributor had decided to replace its legacy applications. As a direct result of which, they required a significant upgrade to their core database engine. The database supplier had reviewed the food manufacturer’s requirements and had proposed that they must spend £4,400,000 on additional licenses and maintenance/support.
Solution: Silver Bullet was asked to review and price benchmark the vendors latest proposal and comment on whether there were any savings left on the table. Within 24 hours, Silver Bullet had delivered a Negotiation Summary to the food manufacturer highlighting that the vendor had not correctly applied its own volume discounting rules and as a result there was at least £500,000 (and possibly as much as £640,000) to come out of the proposed price.
Result: Silver Bullet gave the food manufacturer the target pricing and discounting to aim for as well as a negotiation plan on how to get the better deal. As a result, the food manufacturer was able to negotiate a further £512,000 reduction in the cost of the deal.
Contract Healthcheck (savings discovery)
Challenge: A major Water company was faced with an objective to reduce their current IT costs by 5% within 12 months. Alongside a number of other cost saving initiatives, the Water Company believed that there must be some potential cost savings hidden in their existing supplier spend, so they invited tenders from various IT consultancies to see if they could find someone with relevant price benchmarking data who could undertake an audit of their supplier contracts and pricing.
Solution: Silver Bullet was awarded the contract to review their contracts and costs and to see if any pricing anomalies or savings opportunities could be uncovered. Within 5 days, Silver Bullet had delivered a Savings Summary to the Water Company highlighting that there were a number of pricing anomalies that could be attacked.
Result: The Water Company took Silver Bullet’s advice and negotiated cost savings and cost reductions of over £173,000 with some of their software suppliers.
Negotiating lower Support & Maintenance costs
Challenge: An insurance company was facing a maintenance renewal of £1,500,000 p.a from one of its main software suppliers. The insurance company had no alternative but to renew the support & maintenance agreement. There were no competitive alternative offerings available and the renewal date was fast approaching.
Solution: Silver Bullet was asked to review whether the insurance company had any negotiation leverage. Within 24 hours, Silver Bullet had delivered a Negotiation Summary to the insurance company highlighting that the software supplier had in fact been over-charging the insurance company for the last 3 years and that the current proposal was also some £112,000 p.a over-priced.
Result: The insurance company took Silver Bullet’s advice and negotiated a further £100,000 p.a reduction in the cost of the new deal as well as an admission from the software supplier that they had indeed over-charged the insurance company in the past and so would offer a ‘credit’ of £200,000 against any new software purchases the insurance company made in the future.
Negotiating a better software deal:
Challenge: A well known Retailer was looking to refresh a major part of their core online shopping application and had short-listed three software suppliers who could do the job. The Retailer had already negotiated some good discounts with two of the three suppliers, but was having difficulty getting their preferred supplier to reduce their costs by any meaningful amount, so they contacted Silver Bullet.
Solution: Silver Bullet price benchmarked the latest proposal from the preferred supplier and quickly concluded that there were further negotiable savings available. Within 24 hours, Silver Bullet had delivered a Negotiation Summary and Recommendations to the Retailer which highlighted the fact that the supplier had sold their software for less to other clients and so could potentially reduce their current proposed costs by up to £122,000.
Result: Silver Bullet discretely advised the Retailer’s main negotiator on what to say to the supplier. As a result the Retailer was able to negotiate a further £104,000 reduction in the cost of the deal.