Outdated infrastructure slowed down critical services until SHI offered a smarter IT strategy

Faced with legacy challenges, this government agency turned to SHI to transform its technology and streamline operations.

Challenge:

Our customer, one of the larger and more economically significant counties in the United States, oversees a complex IT environment supporting over five million residents and multiple internal agencies—each with independent budgets and software procurement practices. This decentralized structure created ongoing challenges in managing software compliance, optimizing SaaS usage, and maintaining a secure IT estate. The presence of end-of-life (EOL) software titles also posed operational and security risks, further complicating ITIL functions across the organization. The customer turned to SHI to not only manage their software assets but also to gain a clearer picture of license entitlements, improve governance, and identify cost optimization opportunities.

Solution:

Since 2017, SHI has delivered a Software Asset Management (SAM) Managed Service designed to provide reliable, continuously updated software asset management across the customer’s Microsoft and Adobe environments. The service aggregates and analyzes software data from both on-prem and cloud environments using SHI’s proprietary tools, enhanced by customer input. SHI’s experts clean and validate the data to ensure accuracy, then deliver insights through formal quarterly reports and ongoing weekly engagements. These insights include license reconciliation, risk assessments, and optimization strategies tailored to each agency’s unique needs. The service also includes contract review and entitlement validation, enabling more informed negotiations during renewals. By integrating seamlessly into the customer’s ITIL processes and providing granular reporting via SHI’s Asset Insights platform, the service delivers full transparency and control over the customer’s software ecosystem.

Outcome:

The impact of SHI’s service has been significant. In 2024 alone, the customer realized a 315% return on their investment in the SAM Managed Service. This included the remediation of $190,000 in risk related to CIS and System Center products, and $399,000 in cost optimization from addressing underutilized and unassigned Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

SHI also identified future risks in SQL Server and Visual Studio environments, enabling proactive planning. One of the customer’s key goals—reducing the number of end-of-life software titles—was addressed with a 23% decrease in Adobe titles deployed. To help manage the complexity of a multi-agency environment, SHI delivered customized reporting that segmented data by agency, empowering stakeholders with targeted, actionable insights. The customer’s Senior IT Asset Manager, a Net Promoter Score advocate and member of SHI’s ITAM Customer Advisory Board, praised the SHI team’s diligence, attention to detail, and commitment to partnership—underscoring a trusted, results-driven relationship.