Sanil Solanki is a Research Director with Gartner Research. His focus is on IT cost optimization practices, business case review for outsourcing, IT project finance, project benefit realization, IT chargebacks/showbacks and the business value of IT.

Before joining Gartner, Mr. Solanki’s job responsibilities were:

– IT cost base optimization and year-over- year cost reductions

– IT project finance, investment prioritization, benefits realization, understanding the business model and sourcing options for project resources

– Outsourcing business case model review

Years of Experience

• 4 years in total with Gartner

• 8 years in IT industry

• 8 years in Transportation industry

• 6 years in Retail industry

• 3 years in Banking, Finance and Insurance industry

• 5 years in Energy & Utilities industry

Professional Background

• Heathrow Airport (BAA Ltd.), Head of Finance – IT Projects, 2 years

• Tui Travel PLC, IT Finance Manager, 3 years

• Elavon Merchant Services, Finance Manager – U.K. & Ireland, 1 years

Industry Expertise

• Primary Industry: Transportation | Expertise Level: Expert

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Transportation, other

• Secondary Industry 1: Retail | Expertise Level: Specialist

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Hospitality & Travel

• Secondary Industry 2: Banking, Finance and Insurance | Expertise Level:

Contributor

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Banking

◦ Miscellaneous Financial

• Secondary Industry 3: Energy & Utilities | Expertise Level: Contributor

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Water & Sewer Utilities

Education

• Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA)

• B.A., with honors, Accountancy

Languages

• Indian – Hindi

• Indian – Marathi

Top 5 Issues I Help Clients Address

• Running IT cost optimization as a program

• Financial controls for Mode 2 and optimizing the cost of innovation

• IT budgeting and IT budget tool assessment

• Metrics and performance measures

• Creating incubation centers with startups

Roles That Need My Research

• CIO, IT Director, IT CFO, IT Finance Business Partner, Commercial Director, Head of IT Procurement, IT Outsourcing Manager, Program Manager, Director of IT Projects

Top 5 Key Initiatives I Cover

• IT Cost Optimization (retired)

• Business Value of IT (retired)

• IT Budgeting (retired)

• Competitive Advantage and Business Transformation (retired)

• Shared Services (retired)

Common Inquiries I Address

• How CFOs can understand the ROI of IT/digital business

• How to drive optimization as a long-term program

• Removing cost pressure

• Benchmarking unit prices

• IT budget tool reviews

Emerging Research in My Area

• ITO360

• The Gartner Cost Value Matrix

• Optimizing the Cost of Digital Business

Top 3 Trends I See in the Market

• Using startups to scale innovation

• Driving cost optimization through using Nexus of Forces

• Moving from IT cost cutting to improving business margins

Please No Calls about These Topics

• IT organization design

Stewart Buchanan is a Research VP in Gartner’s Technology Procurement

Leaders team, focusing on the economics of the enterprise acquisition of

digital technologies, including software licenses. Mr. Buchanan has

expertise in both supply and demand management through specializations

that include software licensing under virtualization and the cloud, IT asset

management, and gathering data to support the life cycle chargeback of

digital technology costs.

As an IT strategy consultant, Mr. Buchanan helped many well-known

organizations to measure, plan, purchase, recharge and improve value-for-

money in information services, working across industries as diverse as

financial services, media, manufacturing and retail. He previously spent 15

years in IT service management working as an IT manager for an

international firm and as a technical service manager, both in distribution

at a national reseller.

Years of Experience

• 10 years in total with Gartner

• 29 years in IT industry

• 4 years in Media industry

• 4 years in Services industry

• 4 years in Banking, Finance and Insurance industry

• 4 years in Retail industry

Professional Background

• GlassHouse Technologies, Strategic Analyst, 6 years

Industry Expertise

• Primary Industry: Media | Expertise Level: Native

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Media & Publishing

• Secondary Industry 1: Services | Expertise Level: Native

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Miscellaneous Services

• Secondary Industry 2: Banking, Finance and Insurance | Expertise Level:

Native

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Miscellaneous Financial

• Secondary Industry 3: Retail | Expertise Level: Native

•   –   Subsectors:

◦ Retailers

Education

• B.A., with honors, Intellectual History, Universities of Sussex and

Burgundy

Languages

• French

Top 5 Issues I Help Clients Address

• Clients looking to improve technology asset management and manage

costs

• … manage commodity strategies/category plans

• … manage sole-source suppliers

• … charge back spending

• … justify spending

Roles That Need My Research

• IT Asset Manager, Head of Procurement, Head of IT Procurement,

Software Category/Commodity Managers, [Digital] Supply Chain

Manager, Software Asset Manager, Vendor Managers, Program and

Portfolio Manager, Contract Negotiator, Director of Procurement, IT

Chargeback or IT Service/Product Managers, CIO, CFO

Top 5 Vendors I Cover

• VMware, Inc. (Enterprise License Agreements [ELA] and license audits)

• Microsoft Corporation (Backup on SQL Server, virtualization licensing,

SPLA and license audits)

• Adobe Systems Incorporated (Backup on Enterprise Term License

Agreements [ETLA], Creative Cloud)

• Oracle Corporation (Oracle licensing on VMware, Hyper-V and other

Virtualization Environments)

Top 5 Key Initiatives I Cover

• Transforming Technology Procurement to Support Business Innovation

• Evaluating and Negotiating Software License Agreements and Cloud

Contracts

Profile Tags

• ITAM and technology asset portfolio management

• VMware software contract negotiation, licensing and pricing

• software asset management, license compliance

• IT financial asset management, budgeting and chargeback

• software escrow as a form of vendor risk mitigation

• negotiating strategies, internal and external

• licensing Oracle on VMware or other virtual machines

• category management in technology procurement

• Microsoft service provider licensing (SPLA)

• vendor management and technology portfolio startegies

Common Inquiries I Address

• Strategic management of the technology asset porftolio

• Technology procurement optimization through engagement

• with business and IT roles

• What bimodal IT means for IT roles and their interactions with the business

• Chargeback and IT funding, getting business users to pay for IT

• Financial planning of purchases, programs and projects

Recent Client Success Stories

• Driving better value from contracts when clients were driving savings at any cost

• Supporting more realistic fact-based financial planning

• Improving user accountability for the cost of their demand

• Helping clients drive more value from project budgets Emerging

Research in My Area

• See Sourcing and Vendor Management landing page on gartner.com

Top 3 Trends I See in the Market

• Clients trying to cut costs without considering value, risk

• Some IT costs growing much faster than business revenues – Please No Calls about These Topics

• ITScore – 11 answers to 8 year-old questions don’t give us enough to plan the client’s future for Sourcing or Procurement. I only cover one, not both.