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Operational ROI2024–26
02

Tech-Stack Rationalization

Mitigating Capital Leakage & Optimizing Employee Experience

Company
Matter Motor Works
Role
Design Operations Lead
Year
2024–26
$35k
Annualized cost avoidance
35+
Software categories audited
0
Ghost licenses remaining
Day 0
IT provisioning
The Context

The tech stack had grown organically alongside the design studio. Software licenses were provisioned ad-hoc during onboarding and rarely reclaimed during offboarding — resulting in unmitigated capital leakage through ghost licenses and redundant tooling.

The Challenge

There was no standardised, role-based software blueprint. Departments were utilising overlapping, premium tools for identical outputs — maintaining both Keyshot and NX Unigraphics simultaneously — and decentralised provisioning led to unpredictable scaling costs.

The Strategy & Execution
Full Stack Audit & Seat Reclamation
Executed a comprehensive audit across 35+ software categories. Identified inactive users and reclaimed redundant licenses — including Protopie (used 2–3 months of a yearly subscription) and CATIA seats retained after switching to NX Unigraphics.
Role-Based Provisioning Blueprints
Architected Day 0 access protocols tailored to specific disciplines — Spatial, Experience, Industrial, Research. Eliminated ad-hoc negotiations and friction during onboarding entirely.
Strategic Change Management
Migrated the industrial design team from Keyshot (paid, per-seat) to Blender (open-source, equal capability). Managed organisational pushback through targeted support and clear business-case alignment.
Cross-Functional Governance Ledger
Built a transparent Tech Stack Ledger to align Design, IT and Finance on procurement cycles and renewal forecasting — a single auditable source for all license decisions.
Audit Snapshot — Role-Based Toolkit Map

Each department now has a defined Day 0 access blueprint. Struck-through tools were removed from the active stack.

Spatial Design
AutoCADSketchUpAdobe CC
Optimised
Experience Design
Figma (Admin)MiroMazeProtopie
Optimised
Industrial Design
NX UnigraphicsBlenderKeyshotCATIA
Rationalised
Research
MazeNotionMiro
Lean
Measured Impact
$35k
Annualized cost avoidance
35+
Software categories audited
0
Ghost licenses remaining
Day 0
IT provisioning

Secured substantial capital recovery and annualised cost avoidance through rigorous license reclamation.

Architected a zero-friction Day 0 onboarding protocol, significantly reducing time-to-productivity for new hires.

Reallocated recovered capital toward piloting strategic AI tooling — Vizcom and Claude — without increasing total burn rate.

Unified Finance, IT and Design under a single, auditable governance protocol.

Key Takeaway

"Fiscal governance in design is invisible when optimised, and catastrophic when ignored. A structured SaaS ecosystem prevents capital leakage and funds strategic capability scaling."

© 2025 Suchit ThakkarCase Study 02 of 04

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