The $1M Report That Sits on a Shelf
Here’s a pattern we’ve seen dozens of times across 25 years:
A Fortune 500 CFO decides IT costs are too high. They engage McKinsey, EY, or Deloitte for an “IT cost optimization review.” Six months and $1M+ in fees later, a team of junior associates delivers a leather-bound report with 200 pages of recommendations.
The report identifies $20M in potential savings. Everyone nods. The consulting team flies home. The report goes on a shelf.
Twelve months later, nothing has changed. The savings were theoretical. Nobody implemented them. The publisher audits keep coming. The EA renewal gets rubber-stamped. And the CFO is $1M lighter with nothing to show for it.
We know this because those same CFOs eventually call us.
Why Reports Don’t Save Money
The Big 4 model has a fundamental misalignment: they get paid whether you save money or not.
Think about that. McKinsey charges $1M+ upfront. Their deliverable is a report. If you implement the recommendations and save $20M, great. If the report collects dust and you save nothing, also fine — they already got paid.
This creates three predictable problems:
1. Recommendations Without Implementation
Consulting reports are full of “you should” and “we recommend.” They’re light on “here’s exactly how, and we’ll do it with you.” Implementation is messy. It requires vendor negotiations, license analysis, contract restructuring. Big 4 firms don’t do that work — they do advisory.
2. Junior Associates Doing Senior Work
That $1M fee doesn’t buy you the partner who pitched the engagement. It buys you a team of 26-year-old associates who’ve never negotiated a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, never defended a software audit, and have no institutional knowledge of how publishers construct their pricing.
3. No Accountability for Results
If the savings never materialize, the consulting firm faces zero consequences. There’s no clawback. No performance guarantee. The engagement is closed, the invoice is paid, and they’ve moved on to the next client.
The UMS Model: $0 Upfront, Paid on Results
We built UMS on the opposite principle: we only get paid when you save money.
Our shared-savings model works like this:
- $0 upfront — no engagement fees, no retainers, no invoices before results
- We do the work — not advisory, not recommendations, but hands-on implementation
- Savings are verified — both parties agree on the before/after numbers
- 70/30 split — you keep 70% of the savings, we take 30%
If we don’t find savings, you don’t pay. If we find $5M, you keep $3.5M. Our incentive is to find every dollar — because that’s how we earn our fee.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
| McKinsey / Big 4 | UMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | $1M+ | $0 |
| Time to first findings | 6 months | 3 weeks |
| Who does the work | Junior associates | 25-year veterans |
| Implementation | Not included | Full execution |
| Accountability | Zero | 100% (paid on results) |
| NYC track record | Reports delivered | $800M+ in verified savings |
A Real Example
In 2024, a global manufacturer with 16,000 M365 users came to us after spending $800K with a Big 4 firm on an “IT optimization assessment.” The firm had identified $3M in “potential savings” but implemented none of them.
UMS stepped in. In 3 weeks, we:
- Right-sized 4,000 E5 licenses to E3 (saving 40% per license)
- Eliminated 1,200 ghost accounts for departed employees
- Renegotiated true-up terms that the Big 4 report never mentioned
Total verified savings: $5M. Not theoretical. Not “potential.” Verified, implemented, showing up on the next invoice.
The manufacturer’s CFO said it best: “We paid McKinsey $800K for a report. We paid UMS nothing upfront and saved $5M. The math isn’t complicated.”
When to Use a Big 4 Firm (and When Not To)
To be fair, Big 4 firms serve a purpose. If you need board-level strategy, organizational transformation, or M&A integration planning, they’re the right call.
But if your goal is saving money on software licensing, you don’t need a $1M report. You need someone who will:
- Analyze your actual license usage (not estimate it)
- Negotiate with vendors (not advise you to negotiate)
- Implement changes (not recommend them)
- Get paid based on results (not time spent)
That’s what UMS does. It’s what we’ve done for 25 years. And the $1.3B in total client savings proves it works.
The Bottom Line
“They give you a 200-page report. We give you a check for $10M. Which one helps your EBITDA?”
If your CFO is considering an IT cost optimization initiative, ask one question: Does the firm get paid whether you save money or not?
If the answer is yes, you’re buying a report. If the answer is no, you’re buying results.
Ready to see what results look like? Book a 30-minute discovery call — no obligation, no upfront cost. We’ll show you exactly what we’d look at in your environment.