Strategic Cost Reduction Opportunity Assessment for a Media Organisation
How a series of independent strategic reviews across three technology divisions gave a media organisation an objective view of its technology cost base and where it could be realigned.
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30-minute call with a partner. No pitch, no sales process.
The situation
The organisation was seeking to realign the cost base of the business through a series of independent strategic reviews. Technology was a significant part of that picture: three separate technology divisions, plus a number of IT capabilities being managed inside other business units, each with its own cost structure and history.
Cost realignment on that scale cannot be done credibly from the inside. Each division has its own view of why its costs are necessary, and capabilities embedded in business units are often invisible to any central review. The organisation needed one objective, consistent picture across all of it.
Why independent advice mattered
Cost reviews conducted by parties with a stake in the outcome tend to find savings in someone else’s budget. Divisions defend their own arrangements, and external providers assessing an environment are simultaneously assessing their own sales opportunity.
Our independence meant every division and every embedded capability was assessed by the same objective standard, with no interest in where the findings landed, and no services to sell into the gaps we identified.
What we did
The review covered the full technology footprint, not just the parts with technology in their name.
Reviewed three technology divisions
We assessed each of the organisation’s three technology divisions on a consistent, independent basis, so their cost structures could be compared honestly for the first time.
Mapped IT capabilities inside business units
We identified and assessed the IT capabilities being managed within other business units: the spend and duplication that central reviews routinely miss.
Built the consolidated cost picture
We brought divisional and embedded costs into a single view of what the organisation actually spends on technology and what it receives for it.
Identified realignment opportunities
We set out where the cost base could be realigned, giving the executive an evidence-based set of opportunities rather than a blunt cost-cutting target.
The outcome
- A consistent, independent assessment across three technology divisions
- Visibility of IT capabilities and spend embedded inside other business units
- A consolidated view of the organisation’s true technology cost base
- An evidence-based set of cost realignment opportunities for the executive
The organisation gained what internal reviews could not produce: one objective picture of its full technology spend, and a set of realignment opportunities each division could be held to.
Do you actually know your technology cost base?
If technology spend is spread across divisions and buried in business units, no one inside the organisation can see the whole picture. An independent review can.
No pitch, no sales process. Just a senior view.
The signals that led this organisation to seek independent advice
If any of these feel familiar, the conversation is worth having before the next decision locks you in.
Technology spend is fragmented
Multiple divisions and business units each hold a piece of the technology budget, and nobody holds the total.
Every division defends its own costs
Internal reviews stall because each area can justify itself in isolation. There is no consistent, independent standard applied across all of them.
The executive needs opportunities, not slogans
A percentage cost-cutting target without evidence produces damage. A specific, assessed set of realignment opportunities produces savings.
The services behind this engagement
IT Cost Reduction Diagnostic
A benchmarked read on whether you are paying a fair price for the technology you receive, independent of any provider.
Explore the Cost Reduction Diagnostic
IT Assessment
An independent, evidence-based view of whether your technology, cost base and risk position are fit for the business.
Explore IT Assessment
Technical Governance Review
Independent assurance that technology decisions, spend and risk are being governed the way the board assumes they are.
Explore Technical Governance Review
More evidence from the field
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Independent perspective. One conversation away.
A 30-minute conversation with a partner is the simplest way to see whether independent advice is the right next step for your organisation. No pitch, no sales process – just a senior view of where you are and where the priorities should sit.