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Gartner Expert
Bill Ryan
VP Analyst
Bill Ryan is a Vice President and Key Initiative Leader in Gartner's Sourcing, Procurement and Vendor Management organization, where Mr. Ryan advises organizations on negotiation strategies to achieve sustainable, best-in-class deals with major business application software vendors such as SAP. He brings expertise in contract negotiation strategies, vendor pricing and licensing models, and IT budgeting and financial management to help clients maximize flexibility while minimizing cost and risk exposure. He also covers future trends in the evolution of software and SaaS pricing and licensing models, and is a generalist for IT financial management trends and related issues.
Previous experience
Mr. Ryan brings a combination of software and SaaS buying and selling experience to this role, having participated in large-scale technology deals, both as a customer and as a software provider. Prior to joining Gartner, he led the IT Finance function at L.L. Bean, where he was responsible for all IT financial management and procurement. In addition, he played a lead role in negotiating several major software and services acquisitions to enable kickoff of the company's business transformation program, as well as in support of its digital business strategic initiative.
On the software provider side, he previously led the pricing and licensing function at MathWorks, maker of MATLAB technical computing software. In this capacity, he was responsible for pricing and license model development on a global scale during a period of 5x revenue growth and global expansion, covering both commercial and higher education markets.
Professional background
L.L. Bean
Sr. Leader, IT Finance
MathWorks, Inc.
Manager, Worldwide Pricing and Licensing
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
Engagement Manager, Assurance Services, Technology Industry
Areas of coverage
IT Asset Management and Software Audit (retired)
Contracting for Cloud (retired)
Contracting for Products (retired)
Education
M.B.A., Kelley School of Business, Indiana University
B.A., State University of New York, Oswego
Top Issues That I Help Clients Address
1Negotiating effective and sustainable software contracts with IT vendors (SaaS and on-premises)
2Managing relationships with strategic software vendors such as SAP
3Migrating from on-premises to SaaS/cloud offerings
4Vendor license audit tactics, approach and remediation