Gartner Report: Third-Party Support Reduces Costs, Drives Innovation

In this report, you will find dozens of insights around the challenges of pursuing digital growth while controlling costs. Among predictions and recommendations, per understanding from the report:

• Prediction: “SaaS vendors foster application ecosystems to increase the availability of niche, add-on functionality, resulting in increased lock-in for existing customers buying from these partners.”*
• Prediction: “Each year, support costs for legacy software increase, while the benefits gained from that support decrease, leading to more organizations seeking lower-cost third-party support options.”*
• Recommendation: Enterprises that have identified applications that they do not yet wish to move to the cloud should evaluate third-party support as an alternative to direct vendor support in order to maintain high-performing, existing software
• Recommendation: “For those applications that you do not yet want to move to the cloud, evaluate third-party support as an alternative to direct vendor support in order to help fund future innovation.”*

This must-read from Gartner enables IT leaders and sourcing/procurement/vendor management personnel to identify the trends and impacts of pursuing digital transformation in tandem with cost control.

Reference: *Gartner, Inc. “Predicts 2020: Negotiate Software and Cloud Contracts to Manage Marketplace Growth and Reduce Legacy Costs.” December 18, 2019.

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