He wasn’t shopping for help on his Oracle renewal. One DoGood match later, it was an easy sell to leadership.
A Director of Infrastructure & Operations at a large benefits organization
Infrastructure, operations, IT asset management and software spend
Name and company withheld at the member's request.
He is a Director in infrastructure and operations at a large benefits organization, where he oversees the IT asset management program: IT budgeting and forecasting, and every software maintenance and support renewal. His name and company are withheld at his request.
Before DoGood put SoftwareOne in front of him, he had never worked with them. One meeting in May 2026 turned into half a dozen, with demos and customer references. What started as help with a single Oracle renewal became, in his words, “a relatively easy sell to our executive leadership,” and a longer-term relationship he compares to working with a health coach.
Key takeaways
A vendor he had never worked with, brought in for his Oracle renewal. “We had not heard of or worked with SoftwareOne in the past.” He knew other partners did similar work, but SoftwareOne was not on his list until he saw their profile among his DoGood matches.
The gap was an outside perspective, not capability. His organization has two large enterprise agreements up for renewal in 2027 and a long-tenured team. “We’re confident we can do it ourselves, but the opportunity to have someone on the outside looking in, to open the books a little bit, I thought was a good idea for us.”
He went in direct, and they matched it. “I was very upfront: if it’s not a match, you just need to let me know.” SoftwareOne came back with specific examples of where they had solved the same problem. “Basically, it was like, ‘Hey, you’re not alone. This is the foundation of our business model.’”
Low pressure, good chemistry, an easy yes. After the first call he brought in his asset management team, then demos, then customer references. “It was very low pressure coming from SoftwareOne to us… It was a relatively easy sell to our executive leadership.” In all, “we’ve probably met them about half a dozen times, if not more.”
More than a negotiation. He fit the work into budget he sets aside each year for three maturity assessments. “It’s not only a renewal. They look at your best practices, and if they find some gaps, they’ll come back and say, ‘Here’s how you got here.’”
“It’s like getting a health coach. You want to lose 15 pounds, but you leave the relationship healthier and in a better place to maintain and go forward.”
Without the meeting, they would have handled it in-house. “It wasn’t something that we were looking for. I was just browsing through the portal, looking at my matches and saying, ‘Yeah, this looks good. This doesn’t.’ When I read that one, I said, ‘This may be worthy of a good partnership.’”
In his own words
What does your team own?
I’m a director within infrastructure and operations. One of the areas I oversee is our asset management program, which includes all the IT financials (budgeting, forecasting) and all of our software maintenance and support renewals. Part of that is making sure we’re not over-deployed or under-deployed, that we’re right-sizing our investments and getting good use of all the capabilities that come with a particular offering. We refer to it as being good stewards of our financial investments when it comes to software.
What was happening before SoftwareOne?
We have two large-scale enterprise agreements coming up for renewal in 2027. We have so many long-tenured employees here. I’m not going to say inexperienced, but we just haven’t had an outside perspective on how negotiations in these areas work.
What made you take the meeting through DoGood?
When I saw the profile for SoftwareOne, it piqued my interest. We’re confident we can do it ourselves, but the opportunity to have someone on the outside looking in, to open the books a little bit, I thought was a good idea for us.
How did one meeting turn into a partnership?
I went into it very direct and specific about the use case, a renewal of our Oracle enterprise agreement, and very upfront: if it’s not a match, just let me know, but here’s where we are and here’s what we do. We shared similar thoughts and were familiar with similar asset management tools. They gave pretty direct, pointed examples of where they’d addressed this in the past. The initial conversation was very good, candid and upfront, and we kicked it off with a lot of transparency.
From there, I brought in my asset management team, which is just a couple of people right now, who will be working on those agreements. It was good chemistry and very low pressure. They gave us demos on how they work and operate, we did a couple of customer references, and then we circled back. It seemed like a good fit, and it was a relatively easy sell to our executive leadership. At the end of the day, it’s a worthy investment, and it’s also kind of a win-win the way they set up their pricing structure. So we feel pretty good about it.
How do you think about the engagement?
In my own budget each year, I set aside money for three engagements, just maturity assessments. While I don’t really think of a renewal as a maturity assessment, I thought, “I can make this fit. I can justify this fairly easily,” because it’s not only a renewal. They look at your best practices, and if they find some gaps, they’ll come back and say, “Here’s how you got here.” Maybe it’s a procedural thing, maybe a process thing, maybe a lack of visibility, and they help us close that gap. It’s not just, “We’ll help you through this negotiation process.” I equate it to a lifestyle change. It’s like getting a health coach: you want to lose 15 pounds, but you leave the relationship healthier and in a better place to maintain and go forward. That’s how we view the potential for the relationship, and I think they feel the same way.
If you hadn’t taken the meeting?
I think we would’ve just handled it in-house. It wasn’t something we were looking for. I was just browsing through the portal, looking at my matches and saying, “Yeah, this looks good. This doesn’t.” When I read that one, I said, “This may be worthy of a good partnership.”
Learn more about SoftwareOne at softwareone.com.