Independent software procurement consulting & advisory for Australian businesses. We sit on your side of the table and negotiate with your vendors using 6+ years of global pricing intelligence. We only get paid when we save you money. No reseller targets. No vendor allegiance.
Software licensing is one of the largest line items in most IT budgets, and the one that gets the least commercial scrutiny. Renewals roll around, the vendor sends a quote, and someone signs it.
Most resellers and MSPs earn a margin on every licence they sell. When the renewal comes up, they are not incentivised to negotiate a lower price · lower price means lower margin. The advice you are getting comes from someone whose income depends on you spending more.
We work differently. In our exclusive APAC partnership with Adept Technologies, we bring six years of global pricing intelligence and a no-win-no-fee model. The only way we get paid is by saving you money.
We are not looking to take over any consulting, implementation or support work. That remains as-is and is completely outside our engagement focus. We focus on the licence fee · and how Adept's experience and relationships get you the best possible commercial outcome.
We review your current software agreements, licence entitlements, renewal dates and what you are paying. We map this against global benchmark data covering thousands of comparable transactions across enterprise software contracts.
The audit is free. No commitment.
Before we negotiate, we check whether you are actually using what you are paying for. Shelfware, over-provisioned licences and duplicate agreements across business units are common. Right-sizing the estate before renewal is often the single biggest savings lever.
With a Letter of Authority (a simple email will do) we go to your vendors as your representative. We use benchmark pricing data your vendors do not expect you to have. You are copied on written communications, briefed before and after calls, and nothing is agreed without your sign-off.
Once terms are agreed, you sign directly with the vendor. We do not sit in the middle of that contract. We verify the savings against the baseline. The difference between your old pricing and your new pricing is the verified saving. That is the only number our fee is calculated against.
We cover the full enterprise software estate, because overspending rarely stops at one vendor. The grid below is the set of vendors Adept has negotiated against. The savings table further down covers the eleven categories with substantiated, transaction-level outcomes.
Enterprise Agreements, cloud subscriptions, SaaS platforms, security tooling, DevOps licensing, collaboration tools. If it is on your software invoice, it is in scope.
| Aspect | Donnish + Adept | Reseller-advisor |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue model | Fee from verified savings only | Margin on every licence sold |
| Vendor affiliations | No reseller targets. We represent the buyer. | Reseller agreements, partner tiers, volume incentives |
| Pricing data | Adept global benchmarks across thousands of transactions | Vendor price lists and distributor margin sheets |
| Whose side? | Yours. We represent the buyer. | Conflicted. Higher spend means higher margin. |
| Impact on existing IT partners | None. Your MSP, consultants and support stay in place. | They are the existing IT partner. |
| Cost if no savings | Zero. | You are still paying their margin. |
Think of it like buying property. Your real estate agent represents the seller. A buyer's agent represents you. We are the buyer's agent for your software contracts.
Adept has negotiated enterprise software contracts across Europe, Africa and Australia for 6+ years. The numbers below are substantiated, transaction-level results.
Source: Adept Technologies global engagement benchmarks.
These savings are calculated against what the client was going to pay, not against a theoretical list price. If the renewal quote is $500,000 and we negotiate it to $400,000, the saving is $100,000. That is the number our fee is based on. Real, verified, auditable.
The audit is free. If there is nothing to save, we will tell you. Senior people respond. No bots, no call centres.
We work best with organisations spending over $1M per year on platform, cloud or SaaS licences. Ideally between $3M and $5M, across entities and business units. That is the scale where the engagement effort produces meaningful savings.
Part of how Donnish helps. Our lead service is Mobile App Maintenance and Support.
Further reading: Software procurement: the unaudited EBITDA lever in PE portfolios.
