Partnership Saved a Transportation Authority $250,000 in Licensing Costs
The transportation authority for a major U.S. state faced a critical decision point in its IT infrastructure. The authority is responsible for overseeing roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing. Given the role it plays in these essential public services, the authority couldn’t afford any disruption to its operations.
Unfortunately, its aging IT infrastructure was becoming a liability that threatened business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) initiatives. To solve this problem, the authority partnered with Advizex. It wanted us to find a solution that would maintain its operational integrity, optimize costs, and remove the roadblock from its initiatives.
The Challenge
The transportation authority relied heavily on virtualization technology across three separate environments. One of these was a critical hypervisor infrastructure for managing multiple machine operations. Its existing vendor, VMware, presented it with an unexpectedly high license renewal quote, kicking off the search for alternative solutions. This presented a problem, as switching platforms would have significantly delayed the BC/DR initiative. Management was stuck with having to choose between cost management and operational continuity.
The Approach
Advizex has long been a technology partner for the transportation authority. To help it solve this problem, we first took a methodical approach to understanding what its challenges were:
- We conducted a virtualization platform workshop to evaluate the current infrastructure and explore the potential alternatives.
- After confirming that maintaining its existing virtualization platform was the best way to preserve its immediate BC/DR initiatives, we performed a no-fee assessment of its three virtualization environments and gathered operational data.
- We leveraged our strategic partnership with the virtualization vendor to advocate for our client, presenting detailed environmental data that demonstrated its specific needs and usage patterns.
The Complexity
VMware bases pricing on the needs of the purchaser. Our client was classified as a “strategic account,” requiring it to purchase a premium package. However, our usage analysis revealed that the classification was incorrect. The client's usage fits within a lower-tiered package available at a much lower price. Thanks to our established relationship with the vendor, Advizex was able to communicate the client’s actual needs effectively. The new information led to a breakthrough in licensing structure negotiations.
The Solution
Thanks to a deep understanding of the client’s needs, Advizex was able to produce several benefits for it:
- We secured a licensing arrangement more aligned with the client's actual needs, resulting in over $250,000 in savings compared to the original renewal quote.
- We negotiated a three-year payment structure so the transportation authority could budget its IT costs more accurately for future fiscal years.
- We developed a forward-looking platform modernization roadmap that provided potential alternative hypervisor solutions for consideration by the client as a long-term goal.
Long-term Impact
The solution Advizex delivered went beyond immediate cost savings. By helping it get a more appropriate licensing structure and creating a clear technology roadmap, we helped the transportation authority:
- Maintain operational continuity without compromising its BC/DR initiative
- Improve its budget forecasting capabilities
- Create a foundation for future technology modernization
- Enhance its IT infrastructure resilience
Key Success Factors
Advizex’s experience as a technology partner in general and with the client, in particular, gave us several advantages that aided the success of the project:
- Deep understanding of the client's operational environment and requirements
- Strong vendor relationships that enabled effective negotiation
- Comprehensive environmental assessment that provided concrete data for decision-making
- Long-term strategic planning that balanced immediate needs with future scalability
This case study demonstrates how building a strategic relationship with IT partners can deliver value beyond traditional vendor relationships. By leveraging our strong industry relationships along with our knowledge of the client’s infrastructure and needs, we helped a provider of critical public services optimize its technology stack without sacrificing operational effectiveness.