Nobody had ever added up the bills in one place.
Eleven subscriptions across four departments, each signed by whoever needed it, most renewing automatically. The first week wasn’t setup. It was math.
The other three subscriptions were fine as they were, so we left them alone.
The two “keep renting” rows matter most. Accounting and payroll change every year with tax rules, and the vendor handles that for you. That’s ongoing value, and ongoing value is exactly what a subscription is for.
One system at a time. Each one working before the next started.
Video, and only video
One system on their own cloud account: recording, private sharing, transcripts and team permissions. 96 users moved over in nine working days. Nothing else was touched.
- Their cloud, their domain, their branding
- Storage rules set before the first upload
- Two admins on their side, trained and documented
What it proved: their biggest worry was “We have no engineers. Who fixes it at 2 a.m.?” The answer turned out to be boring. It didn’t break.
Wiki and files
The wiki and the client file storage moved next, onto the same setup, with the same login and the same backups.
- One login across all three systems
- Nine years of documents moved, with their history
- A restore from backup tested in front of their operations lead
What went wrong: the first move scrambled folder permissions for one department. We found it, said so in the weekly update before they noticed, and ran it again. Two days lost.
Forms, workflows, then the keys
The forms and request system moved last. Then we connected the systems to how the company actually works, spent a week handing over, and stepped back.
- A client walkthrough video becomes a transcript and a project log entry
- A request form becomes a ticket with an owner, with no inbox in between
- Runbook, passwords and a running-cost model handed to their operations lead
The test: in week twelve, we answered nothing. Two support requests came in that month. Their operations lead closed both using the runbook.
The software bill stopped growing with headcount.
That matters more than the first year’s savings. The owned systems now cost what the hosting costs. Hiring twenty people next year adds twenty salaries and no new software bills.
Owning isn’t free. It’s fixed.
They pay for hosting every month, and they paid us once per system. What changed is that neither number grows when they hire. If someone quotes you savings without mentioning the running cost, they’re selling, not advising.
Two tools we told them to keep renting.
Accounting and payroll. Both change with tax rules all the time, a filing mistake is costly, and neither has a self-hosted option worth the risk. Owning those would have been ideology, not good business.
The whole method is one question, asked for each tool: is the vendor still adding value here, or are we paying rent on something that stopped changing?
Start with one system. The ownership check tells you if the rest is worth it.
Client details are kept general at their request. The order, the mistakes and the numbers are as they happened. If you’re seriously considering this, we’ll walk you through the full version on a call.