NPI
An Expert in IT Sourcing and Software License Audits

“Digital transformation” is precipitating substantial change for businesses in every industry, and those changes directly impact IT buyers. Organizations are purchasing more technology products and services (often through new vendors), navigating faster buying cycles and spending at higher rates than ever before. Pair that with companies’ rush to accomplish their transformation objectives and you have created an environment ripe for overspending.

“Given all of those factors, how do you know if you are getting a fair deal? How do you identify cost risk when IT vendors are notoriously un-transparent about pricing and licensing?” asks Jon Winsett, the CEO of NPI. He goes on to highlight the challenges associated with understanding complex licensing options, selecting the optimal usage rights for short and long-term needs, and assuring compliance.

Atlanta-based NPI ticks all these boxes, providing transaction-specific price benchmark analysis and negotiation intel that empowers its clients to make best-in-class purchases. Companies simply need to submit a vendor quote, upon which NPI conducts price benchmark analysis to determine if the vendor’s price is within the fair market value range. NPI also takes into consideration the business terms offered by the vendor. “We find that more than 65 percent of quotes are priced above fair market value. We then provide our clients with new cost targets and negotiation intel that will help them secure the best possible deal for their IT purchase,” explains Winsett.

The company also addresses a major problem that plagues IT customers: software license audits. Audits are now a big revenue generator for enterprise software vendors, and many also use software license audits as a tactic to “motivate” their customers to move to newer offerings. NPI’s Software License Audit Services—comprising both audit defense and self-audits—help companies expertly navigate the notoriously complex (and error-prone) software audit process and optimize audit outcomes.

We provide our clients with new cost targets and negotiation intel that will help them secure the best possible deal for their IT purchases

“If a company has a big renewal coming up with a particular vendor, or suspect they may be out of compliance, they will engage with us to proactively identify non-compliance and help them remediate the situation internally,” explains Winsett. In other instances, where clients are already in-process with a vendor’s audit, NPI conducts its own discovery and license use interpretation, compares the findings with those of the vendor’s, and defends the client’s true license position.

NPI’s services proved significant for a leading healthcare company that underwent a software license audit with a large vendor and was slapped with a $44 million compliance claim. The healthcare company engaged NPI to review the vendor’s findings. NPI determined that the interpretations were alarmingly inaccurate and defended the healthcare institution’s license position, resulting in a settlement of $1 million.

What differentiates NPI from other players is its team of over 300 vendor-specific experts who have a detailed understanding of vendors’ unique licensing, subscription, and pricing models, as well as their negotiation behaviors. With the continuous support of experts and extensive experience in the industry, NPI reviews billions of dollars in IT spend annually. “Through NPI’s intel and guidance, most clients realize savings of seven to eight figures. These savings can be reallocated to unfunded IT and transformation projects or drop directly to the client’s bottom line,” concludes Winsett.