The City of New York is the largest municipal government in the United States, with over 300,000 employees across 80+ agencies - from the NYPD and FDNY to the Department of Education and the Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI). Managing enterprise software at that scale means navigating thousands of contracts, dozens of publishers, and procurement cycles that span mayoral administrations.
UMS has been NYC’s software asset management partner for over 25 years, delivering more than $800 million in cumulative savings through centralized licensing strategy, vendor contract negotiation, and audit defense across Microsoft, Adobe, VMware, Cisco, Oracle, Dell, and other major publishers. David Burns has managed this account for close to 20 years, providing the continuity that keeps savings compounding across political cycles. The city recently signed a 6-year renewal agreement - their longest commitment in the history of the partnership.
The Challenge
NYC’s software estate grew organically over decades, with agencies independently purchasing licenses, negotiating renewals, and responding to vendor audits - often without visibility into what other agencies were doing. This created three compounding problems:
- Fragmented purchasing - Agencies procured software independently, missing volume discounts and creating inconsistent licensing terms across the city. A single publisher might have dozens of separate agreements with different NYC entities, each negotiated in isolation.
- Compliance exposure - Without centralized inventory, the city had no reliable way to know whether deployments matched entitlements. This made every vendor audit a potential multi-million-dollar liability - and vendors knew it.
- Renewal blind spots - With hundreds of contracts across dozens of publishers, renewal deadlines were routinely missed or managed reactively, eliminating the city’s leverage to negotiate favorable terms.
The challenge wasn’t just cost - it was the lack of a unified operating model for software across the largest municipal government in the country.
How UMS Solved It
Step 1: Centralized Visibility UMS deployed its licenseITall platform to consolidate software inventory, entitlement data, and usage analytics across all city agencies. Quarterly data extractions from tools like SCCM, Remedy, and VMware vCenter are normalized into a single compliance dashboard - giving both OTI (formerly DoITT) and individual agencies a real-time view of their licensing positions. This shifted agency staff from spending 73% of their time on tactical data compilation to focusing on strategic decision-making.
Step 2: Microsoft Portfolio Optimization Microsoft is NYC’s largest software relationship, and UMS’s deepest area of impact. Over the life of the engagement, UMS has delivered $53M+ in documented Microsoft savings across multiple categories:
| Category | Issue | UMS Action | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office Professional | 82,000+ desktops exceeded license allocation | Negotiated step-up licensing vs. costly redeployment | $23M risk avoided |
| Windows Enterprise | Suboptimal Software Assurance renewal timing | Strategically timed renewals against purchase cycles | $5.75M saved |
| SQL Server (DOC) | Enterprise edition on video surveillance - massive over-licensing | Restructured to Standard edition with blended model | $6.5M avoided (from $5.5M down to <$1M) |
| Project & Visio | 2,500+ incorrect deployments; 3,000 additional licenses needed | Right-sized deployments; $300K spend vs. $2.8M+ requirement | $9.4M saved & avoided |
| Enterprise CALs | 67,000+ Exchange/SharePoint CALs needed at renewal | Consolidated negotiation across agencies | $5.5M avoided ($4.5M vs. $10M+) |
Step 3: Multi-Vendor Contract Management Beyond Microsoft, UMS manages NYC’s full publisher portfolio - negotiating renewals, monitoring compliance, and identifying optimization opportunities across Adobe (ETLA renewals since 2015), VMware (ELA renewals with OMB-level review), Cisco (strategic sourcing with 5-year TCO modeling), Oracle, and Dell. Each vendor relationship is managed through the same centralized platform, ensuring the city never negotiates blind.
Step 4: Audit Defense When publishers audit NYC, UMS provides end-to-end audit defense - reconstructing entitlement evidence, controlling data disclosure sequences, and negotiating settlements grounded in technical fact rather than auditor assumptions.
| Audit | Initial Claim | Final Settlement | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM | $85M | $12M | 86% |
| Open Text | $2M | $115K | 94% |
| Microsoft SPLA | $1.6M | <$500K | ~69% |
| Oracle Sales Audit | $10M | Deferred; self-remediated | Avoided |
These outcomes aren’t just cost avoidance - they establish precedent and leverage for future vendor interactions.
Results
| Metric | Impact |
|---|---|
| Cumulative savings | $800M+ over 25 years |
| Microsoft-specific savings | $53M+ documented (savings, cost avoidance, risk avoidance) |
| Audit claims defended | $98.6M in initial claims reduced by 85%+ |
| Agencies served | 80+ across all city operations |
| Partnership duration | 25+ years across multiple administrations |
| Latest renewal | 6-year commitment - longest in partnership history |
Key insight: The most valuable aspect of this engagement isn’t any single negotiation - it’s the compounding effect of institutional knowledge maintained over decades. UMS’s continuity across administrations means every renewal builds on the last, every audit defense strengthens future positioning, and every optimization is preserved rather than reset with the next political cycle.
What Makes This Work at Scale
- Platform-driven governance - The licenseITall platform provides centralized compliance dashboards, renewal calendars, and agency-level accountability reporting across all publishers. This transforms software management from a fragmented procurement function into a city-wide strategic discipline.
- Multi-vendor breadth - Managing Microsoft, Adobe, VMware, Cisco, Oracle, and Dell through a single partner eliminates the information silos that vendors exploit in negotiations. UMS sees the full picture; individual publishers only see their piece.
- Continuity through transitions - The program has survived multiple mayoral administrations because it delivers measurable, recurring results that transcend political cycles. The 6-year renewal signals confidence that this model works regardless of who occupies City Hall.
See also: How a federal agency cut M365 spend by 39% in 2 months for a focused example of UMS’s Microsoft optimization methodology.
