Qwik 
In a small organisation, nobody has the complete list of what is debited every month for IT and telecoms. Accounts see amounts, not uses. The people who use the services don’t see the invoices. In between, contracts renew themselves.
What we find most often
- Landlines or mobile lines assigned to people who have left, or to premises that have closed
- Two internet subscriptions, the old one never cancelled after the switch
- Licences counted per user, never adjusted after people leave
- A maintenance contract for hardware that has been replaced
- A lease that has ended but carries on by automatic renewal
- Carrier options activated for a one-off need
- Domain names and hosting that nobody knows the purpose of any more
The method
- Start from the payments. Twelve months of statements and invoices: everything recurring that relates to IT, telephony or the internet.
- Find the contracts. For each line: with whom, since when, for how long, with what notice period. This is often the longest part.
- Check the usage. Who uses it, and for what. A licence with no login for six months speaks for itself.
- Sort. Keep, renegotiate or cancel, with each one’s renewal date.
Contract end dates, the real issue
Many contracts renew tacitly for a year, with two or three months’ notice. A cancellation decided a week too late costs a year. The inventory therefore ends with a calendar: on what date to write, to whom, and in what form.
Renegotiate rather than cancel
An old contract has often been overtaken by the same supplier’s current offers. Sometimes all it takes is to ask, as the end date approaches, with a competing offer in hand. You still have to compare like with like: guaranteed bandwidth or not, repair time, options included.
Why independence matters
Whoever advises you should have nothing to sell you in the process. Eramis is independent of suppliers: our advice does not depend on any brand or operator, we receive no kickbacks, and we are not paid a percentage of the savings, which would push towards cancelling rather than choosing well.
What we do not promise
A savings figure announced before anyone has looked is a sales pitch, not a diagnosis. Some organisations are very well run. What the inventory guarantees is that at the end you know what you pay, why, and until when.
In short: start from the payments, find the contracts, check usage, note the renewal dates. Repeat every two or three years. We do it for you as part of our IT strategy assignments.