Introduction
For the past two years, SaaS and Cloud providers have been raising their prices. The latest figures are clear: SaaS solution prices jumped by 8.7% in 2023 and then by 9.3% in 2024. Microsoft has already implemented an 11% increase in Europe, Salesforce raised its prices by 9% for the Business Intelligence segment, and SAP continues to push its bundled offers, making IT departments’ budgeting increasingly complex.
To shed practical light on this challenge, Hubadviser had the privilege of inviting Guillaume Yvon, Chief Technology Officer at OP Mobility (formerly Plastic Omnium), a global automotive equipment manufacturer with over 11 billion euros in revenue. Drawing on his experience, Guillaume shares his hands-on solutions for navigating this uncertain landscape.
Here are the topics we will cover :
- The Supplier Relationship
- The Hosting Strategy
- The Information System Doctrine
Vendor Management : Regaining control over suppliers
In response to the systematic rise in vendor prices, the first step must be a much more rigorous management of the supplier portfolio. Guillaume Yvon emphasizes a fundamental principle: to negotiate effectively, you first need to know exactly what you’re using.
He therefore recommends setting up a reference file listing all the software and SaaS tools used in the company, including not only the renewal date of each license, but more importantly the fiscal year-end date of the respective vendor. This is often when vendors are most willing to offer favorable commercial terms. Negotiating several months in advance can therefore lead to significant savings.
Another major development: commercial negotiation should no longer be handled directly by technical teams. Guillaume Yvon has implemented a governance model with clearly defined roles. The need is expressed by IT, but the negotiation is led by the procurement team and overseen by legal experts. This model is increasingly adopted by major vendors themselves: Microsoft, for instance, has created a “Dealmakers” role, commercial negotiation specialists dedicated to large contracts, thus relieving account managers from the negotiation process.
For strategic contracts, it is also becoming relevant to seek support from firms specialized in Vendor Management. These firms have the expertise and market data needed to secure the best terms, often with a compensation model based on the savings achieved.
Hosting strategy : building smart hybridization
The rising cost of Cloud services might lead some to advocate for a massive return to On-Premise. According to Guillaume Yvon, this would be a narrow view. The right balance must be found through a well-managed hybrid strategy.
The Cloud retains essential value for new projects, innovative initiatives, or any situation where the evolution of needs remains unpredictable. In such cases, its flexibility and ability to absorb uncertainty remain unmatched.
However, for applications with stable usage, the advantage of the Cloud quickly fades. Guillaume observes that after three years of operation, an application that remains in the Cloud systematically ends up costing more than On-Premise hosting. The ability to forecast consumption therefore becomes a key decision-making criterion.
Three factors guide the choice :
- the predictability of uses
- data criticality
- latency requirements.
When an application is critical or requires very low latency, On-Premise remains preferable. However, this strategy requires strengthening local infrastructure skills to operate complex hybrid environments.
Information System Doctrine : Re-internalization of talents and platformization
For core business applications, Guillaume Yvon recommends bringing development back in-house. It’s not just about differentiation, but also about ensuring economic control. When an application is essential to operations, the company cannot afford to be subject to price increases imposed by a vendor.
At the same time, the Best of Breed approach, which consisted of selecting the best solution for each need, must be re-evaluated. Guillaume Yvon, long a supporter of this philosophy, now sees its limits: rising costs, chronic underuse of features, and integration complexity.
He now advocates for a reasoned platformization approach. The idea is to rely on a few strategic vendors, understand their product roadmap, and maximize the use of already available features to avoid duplication and control investments. This doctrine naturally leads to a rationalization of the number of suppliers used by the company. In short, the goal is to rely on a limited number of vendors that must be thoroughly understood both functionally and commercially.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, Guillaume, like many experts we have recently met, insists on the need to educate business teams: the ultra-customization mindset must be left behind.
Today, it’s no longer acceptable to add a button in the top-left corner just because a business manager asked for it. The goal is to move toward standardized models that cover 70 to 80% of needs. It’s not perfect, but it’s enough. This imperfection must be accepted, because standardization is what enables change.
In a context of constant transformation and uncertainty, the priority must be agility, not the maximal satisfaction of every request.
But this cultural shift does not concern only business teams. It must also take place within IT departments themselves. Many IT professionals naturally want to do things well, to meet requests by delivering tailor-made, highly customized, nearly perfect solutions. And yet, their role has evolved.
Today, they must position themselves more as integrators, with an architect’s mindset, capable of thinking about the long-term evolution of applications rather than building specific solutions that may look optimal on paper but end up being too rigid or hard to maintain.
This is a profound shift in posture that the CIO must lead with the support of the executive committee or, failing that, the finance department.
It is also a key condition for keeping SaaS costs under control: because the more you customize, the more you build specific solutions, the more technical debt you generate… and the more costs spiral out of control. This vicious cycle must be avoided at all costs.
Conclusion: Building a sober, sovereign and resilient IT
The era of unrestrained SaaS consumption is coming to an end. Faced with rising costs, vendor consolidation, and accelerating technology, IT departments must rethink their strategy.
Structuring Vendor Management, building true hybridization, reinternalizing key skills, and adopting a platformization doctrine are the foundations of a modern, efficient, and sovereign IT.
As in the automotive industry where OP Mobility operates, cost optimization is not a luxury, but a condition for survival and sustainable leadership.
