DANTE DEO · IN PRACTICE · CLIENT CASE STUDY
Right-sized, not just right-priced
How a global mining group turned a software renewal priced for the business it used to be into a 66 % cost reduction, without impacting the business.
66 % LOWER YEAR-ONE COST VS. THE VENDOR’ S ORIGINAL PROPOSAL *
* Year-one cost compared with the vendor’ s original proposal of £ 1.4M per year.
~ 70 % FEWER DATA CONNECTIONS NEEDED
7 of 7 SITES RETAINED, ZERO DISRUPTION
The situation. A global diversified mining group had undergone a major corporate reorganisation, keeping its seven largest and highest-value operations. Its analytics software renewal was priced for the business it used to be. Because the retained sites had always carried most of the platform’ s usage, the quote implied per-site costs more than doubling, and in some cases tripling. The vendor proposed £ 1.4M a year. The client’ s own team negotiated flat pricing at £ 1.1M, still well outside budget.
What changed. Commercial leverage, positioning the client as a long-term strategic partner, brought the price to £ 800,000. The second round renegotiated the footprint itself. Mapping the connection architecture revealed duplicate data pathways, cutting the connections required by around 70 %. A parallel review found user licences that cheaper tools the client already owned could replace. Dante Deo took the vendor a smaller, cleaner, genuinely required footprint and negotiated from there. The final three-year agreement totals approximately £ 1.6M, with all seven sites preserved in full.
The lesson. The savings didn’ t come from demanding a lower price. They came from understanding how the technology was really used and removing what wasn’ t needed, then negotiating from a footprint that matched the business as it is today.
“ The savings didn’ t come from demanding a lower price. They came from understanding how the technology was really used and removing what wasn’ t needed.”
Score yourself in two minutes |
Rate each from 1( rarely) to 5( consistently). The value is in the gap, not the grade. |
Discover |
Can you see how your technology spend connects to the outcomes it |
1 2 3 4 5 |
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supports? |
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Benchmark |
Do you test pricing and usage against the market and vendor best |
1 2 3 4 5 |
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practice before renewing? |
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Eliminate |
Can every major cost still justify its place against today’ s business? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
Optimise |
Is capacity( cloud, licences, people’ s time) matched to what is actually |
1 2 3 4 5 |
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used? |
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Enable growth |
When cost is removed, is there a process to redirect that value into growth? |
1 2 3 4 5 |
Total out of 25. 5 – 10: significant exposure likely. 11 – 15: basic controls, but gaps are costing you. 16 – 20: good foundation, now optimise. 21 – 25: ahead of most organisations.
Scored under 16? Start with a focused framework workshop or a single-renewal diagnostic.
Join us live: LCCI Lunch and Learn, Wednesday 18 November, 1pm to 2pm From Cost Savings to Strategic Value – Sustainable Savings Through Ecosystem Orchestration Leon Steyn walks through the renewal gap, the Dante Deo framework and how managing the whole technology ecosystem delivers savings that last.
About Dante Deo
Dante Deo is an independent IT procurement, sourcing and M & A readiness advisory. We help organisations optimise commercial value, manage risk and run complex procurement, technology and transaction programmes with confidence. No partners and no vendor interests: our advice is only ever about your business. $ 300M + client savings enabled globally · 3,000 + commercial agreements negotiated
Warren Maasdorp
Global Head of Growth & Partnerships warren. maasdorp @ dantedeo. com dantedeo. com
Is your next renewal priced for the business you used to be, or the one you are now? Book a 20-minute conversation about where you need clarity most.
Sources: LCCI Quarterly Economic Survey Q3 2026( fieldwork August 2026); Gartner IT spending forecast, 27 July 2026; Flexera 2026 State of the Cloud Report; Zylo 2026 SaaS Management Index; CMA, business software and cloud services, 31 March 2026; Khaleej Times, June 2026( Etihad). Case study results drawn from a Dante Deo client engagement.