What you will be able to do after this session

• 1See the shelfware. Understand how unused SaaS subscriptions form silently, and why nobody notices until the renewal.
• 2Right size at renewal. Use the renewal as the one moment you can shed unused users, tiers, and modules.
• 3Manage the uplift. Apply the cap where you have one and contest the uplift where you do not, with usage as evidence.
• 4Use swap rights. Move spend from what you do not use to what you do, and co term the estate into one negotiation.
• 5Build leverage early. Start the renewal a year out with usage data and a credible alternative, the only real source of leverage.

How the session works

A taught session with three knowledge checks: the flat price offer on 1,000 seats when only 700 are active, a discount on shelfware; the 8% uplift bundled with a new module to hide both; and the renewal reached 30 days out with no usage data and no alternative, where the problem is the calendar, not the percentage. It closes with one renewal worked two ways, the drifting default against the disciplined runway.

Homework before the next session, about one hour

• 1Measure the shelfware. For one SaaS subscription, pull active users per module against subscribed seats. The gap is your shelfware, quantified.
• 2Draw the runway. For your next SaaS renewal, mark the date and count back twelve, nine, six, and three months into the session 25 calendar.
• 3Test the uplift terms. Find whether each subscription has a renewal cap. Where there is none, the next renewal is where you add one.
• 4Look for swap rights. Check whether any contract allows swapping unused subscriptions. If not, that is a signature ask for the next renewal.
• 5Cost one alternative. For your largest SaaS spend, sketch what a credible alternative would cost and take. Even a rough figure is the start of leverage.