Licence Management-as-a-Service

The business case for outsourced software licensing management.

Why Licence Management-as-a-Service?

Minimise risk: Remove the stress and cost of unexpected vendor audits by ensuring you’re never under-licensed or in breach of vendor T&Cs (which change regularly).

Optimise costs: Stop paying more than you need to for your licensing and support by staying on top of changing vendor usage terms. 21% of our audit clients faced non-compliance exposures of more than $1 million before engaging us.

Free up resources: Managing your software licensing can be a huge resource drain. Free up your headcount and budget for value-creating projects.

Why now?

Rising vendor audits: Audits are inevitable – don’t wait for an audit notice. Licence Management-as-a-Service keeps you in a continuous state of licence optimisation, compliance and audit readiness.

Strategic renewals: Don’t just accept standard vendor uplift at renewal time. Understand your actual licence usage ahead of time and proactively negotiate a maintenance renewal contract that works for you.
Tightening economy: Licence Management-as-a-Service finds ongoing savings in what you already have and frees your team to focus on revenue-generating projects.

Why Invictus Partners?

We love the stuff you hate: Understanding ever-changing software contracts and terms is not pleasurable for most, but we love it and we’re good at it. Our enterprise software experts love delving into contracts and finding opportunities to make your licensing work better for you.

Proven results: We’ve saved our clients more than So far, we’re just over $1 billion in enterprise software costs since 2014.
Extensive experience: With a leadership team of 225+ years of combined software industry experience, we have deep knowledge of each vendor’s unique licensing models, contractual nuances, sales processes, and negotiation strategies.

“We worked closely with Invictus Partners to manage our licensing costs. The team is very much a strategic partner to us in licensing management.”

Heidy Liu, Head of Service Delivery, NSW Land Registry Services.

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Software licence inventory management and cost optimisation as a managed service.

Invictus Partners Licence Management-as-a-Service is Software Licence Management delivered as a managed service by experienced software licensing and audit specialists.

Provided as an ongoing monthly or quarterly service for a duration of your choice, Invictus Partners Licence Management-as-a-Service supports you to realise compliance, cost optimisation and contractual opportunities across all of your software vendors and enables sound and timely data-driven business decisions. There is also the option to secure a “bundle of licence expert hours”, which can be utilised on an as-needed basis.

We can work with your in-house Software Asset Management (SAM) team, or we can manage your software licensing on your behalf so you can focus on creating value. With our Software Licence Management-as-a-Service, there is the flexibility to create a Software Licence Management package which is right for your organisation.

Option 1

Monthly Licence Support Retainer

Option 2

Quarterly Licence Support Retainer

Option 3

Bundle of Expert Hours to Use As Needed

Software Licence Management Solutions to meet all of your needs.

Invictus Partners Licence Management-as-a-Service is delivered by highly skilled and experienced enterprise software licensing experts, and typically includes some or all of the following services, depending on your organisation’s requirements.

Software Licence Health Check

The Software Licence Health Check is a recommended first step for all organisations looking to engage us for ongoing support. In order to determine your software baseline, we implement a review of your current licence position, following the same process and interpretations of agreements as vendor compliance teams. Covering your entire software footprint, we compare usage with entitlements to identify any exposures. Once you have a clear understanding of any exposure or contractual limitations, we can develop the most effective remediation optimisation strategy for you and guide you through the process.

Software Contract Negotiation Advisory

Invictus Partners’ experience in vendor negotiations enables us to know what is an optimal compliance and commercial position based on the current state of your software environment. We can identify the best licensing and contractual terms for your organisation, conduct price benchmarking, and help you negotiate with the vendor to achieve the desired outcomes.

Cloud Migration Licence Advisory

Invictus Partners can help you avoid cloud licence compliance breaches and cost blow-out. We ensure your existing software licences can be transferred to the cloud instance, and if not, advise on how you can modify licence arrangements. We identify the potential business benefits and risks associated with moving each of your applications and workloads to the cloud, help you rightsize your licensing structure for the chosen cloud or hybrid environment, and advise on how and where you could decommission licences not needed under the new model.

Third-Party Support Licence Advisory

If you’re considering a move off vendor support, we can help you understand the licensing impact before you move, so as to avoid any costly compliance breaches. We can assess whether a move is contractually viable, help you develop a business case for Third-Party Support, help optimise your licensing footprint to reduce the scope of support, help you maintain good vendor relations during the transition, and gain more negotiating power with vendors.

Software Licence Audit Defence

Using the same licence audit methodology as vendors, we conduct a mock audit to provide insight into the vendors likely position on your licensing. We uncover any risks, potential breaches, or other items that may lead to non-compliant findings. Equipped with a clear understanding of the root causes of your software licensing exposure, we can develop the most effective remediation strategy and guide you through the remediation process (or even negotiate on your behalf). If your business receives an audit report indicating you are non-compliant, we can provide a vital second opinion, typically lowering the initial financial claim using our tested licence optimisation and negotiation techniques.

Ongoing Software Licence Governance

Want to be more proactive? We can help ensure your software licensing stays compliant and optimised on an ongoing basis with our Software Asset Management (SAM) services. These include monthly or quarterly reporting and reviews, stakeholder meetings, responding to vendor reporting requirements, and identifying additional areas for software licence optimisation. Having an effective SAM program in place means you don’t have to worry about costly fines or over-paying for software and support you don’t need.

Download our Licence Management Services datasheet

IT software license management process

The Invictus Partners difference: Software Licensing Management Solutions

As a specialist enterprise software advisory firm, Invictus Partners has a team that comprises of senior executives from various software vendors, experienced Software Asset Management professionals and enterprise software licensing consultants who have many decades of combined experience managing extensive software portfolios including a mix of on-premise, SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Invictus Partners has expertise across all the major SAM tools and deep knowledge of the software industry, including the products, licensing structures and compliance processes of the major software vendors (SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and others).

Invictus Partners adopts a highly collaborative approach supported by research, facts, and open and honest communication. Invictus Partners views its role as an independent and objective advocate for its clients when advising on vendor negotiation strategies or dealing directly with software vendors on behalf of clients.

Talk to a Software Licence Management expert

Case Study

Invictus Partners manages licensing across Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Red Hat on behalf
of NSW Land Registry Services

Client streamlines software portfolio on AWS

Case Study

Invictus Partners delivers IBM Licence Management-as-a-Service for NSW Land Registry Services

Client streamlines software portfolio on AWS

Got questions about Invictus Partners Licence Management-as-a-Service?


*Gartner, “Top 10 Gotchas When Licensing Oracle Software and SaaS”, March 2023.