IT & cross-functional cost benchmarking
COST HOUSE expertise, now integrated into MASAI
Our engagements combine consulting expertise and dedicated tools, supported by VALOPTIA, a software solution from the group.
Your costs vs. the best in the market: 200+ engagements to position yourself
Our proprietary benchmarks, built on more than 5,000 engagements and updated each year, allow you to compare your cross-functional and IT costs with market benchmarks. We identify performance gaps, quantify optimization potential, and prioritize levers with a concrete action plan. Average result: 8 to 15% optimization potential identified across benchmarked functions.
- Do you know where your costs stand compared to the leaders in your sector?
Business Cases & Customer Testimonials
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Business Case
IT cost benchmark for the IT department of an industrial group (IT budget €200M, 3,000 users)
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Identification of 15% optimization potential, i.e. €30M over 3 years
“An IT action plan validated by top management and integrated into the strategic plan”
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Business Case
Benchmark of support functions for a services group (HR, finance, legal, communications)
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Identification of €8M in achievable savings over 24 months
“A transformation roadmap for support functions with milestones and owners”
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Business Case
Comparative analysis of outsourcing costs for a telecom operator (€50M in contracts)
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Contract renegotiation with a 12% reduction in recurring costs (€6M/year)
“An IT supplier management model based on market costs and strengthened SLAs”
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Understand your objectives and priorities
- Be able to effectively compare yourself with your peers
- Have quantitative comparison elements
- Offer “qualitative” exchanges based on feedback from comparable stakeholders
Deploy our approach
- A benchmark based on an open framework, that of the DFCG.
- Offer organizations the opportunity to share information on their costs, based on a common reference model.
- A framework developed by a working group of 25 companies, covering the 16 major cross-functional areas common to any company (finance, management control, HR, procurement, IT, general services, quality, legal, etc.).
- Comparisons carried out using indicators validated by participants, in compliance with each party’s confidentiality rules.
Generate concrete and sustainable results
- A summary booklet published each year.
- More than two hundred indicators compared.
- A comprehensive summary of workshops and feedback.
Business Cases & Customer Testimonials
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Business Case
Benchmark of cross-functional functions for a major player in the infrastructure sector (3,000+ employees).
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Benchmarking of 8 cross-functional functions and IT costs to objectify performance, position against best practices (DFCG & Cigref), and identify priority optimizations. Deliverables: data collection files, consolidated presentation materials, indicators positioned vs. minimum / maximum / average values, insight report and analysis of optimization opportunities.
“A structured approach that made it possible to objectify performance levels and identify concrete optimization areas, now integrated into the roadmap.”
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Understand your objectives and priorities
- Be able to compare yourself with your peers
- Have quantitative comparison elements
- Work at an operational level enabling exchanges across multiple sectors
- Identify optimization opportunities
- Have “qualitative” discussions based on feedback from comparable stakeholders
Deploy our approach
- A benchmark group active since 2010, with a database of more than €2.5 billion in annual spending analyzed.
- Offer CIOs the opportunity to share information about their costs within a restricted community, based on a common reference model.
- Comparisons carried out on indicators validated by participants, respecting each party’s confidentiality rules.
- Various topics covered in workshops: project tracking through to value, SAM approach and technical debt, P2P / timesheets / data collection / orders processes, IaaS / PaaS vs On Premise costs, contributions of AI to management control, management of licenses / subscriptions / maintenance, Opex / Capex rules, costing and carbon model.
Generate concrete and sustainable results
- An annual summary report published each year with more than one hundred indicators compared.
- A comprehensive summary of workshops and peer feedback.
- Concrete optimization opportunities derived from benchmarking and qualitative exchanges.
Business Cases & Customer Testimonials
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Business Case
IT cost benchmark group created in 2010, bringing together 27 participants in 2025 around a shared cost model.
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More than €5 billion in IT spending analyzed and compared, ~80 indicators measured, 6 workshops per year.
“A community of CIOs who benchmark in confidence and continuously identify efficiency levers through feedback from comparable organizations.”
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Understand your objectives and priorities
- Reduce costs while preserving quality and the value delivered to customers.
- Analyze the overall IT cost structure, starting from the organizational overview and then breaking it down into analysis areas for each major domain.
- Link cost and value and align with market best practices.
- For each domain, identify and qualify potential gains using appropriate methodological tools.
Generate concrete and sustainable results
- An approach at the core of the firm’s expertise, enabling a review of the IT department’s cost structure across 25 main analysis areas.
- Consolidation of the approach through our benchmarks and market analyses.
- Involvement of operational teams and managers, who become real contributors to the optimization initiative.
Deploy our approach
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A structured optimization program, ready to be deployed.
Qualified and quantified savings opportunities, structured within a deployment plan.
A structured optimization program, ready to be deployed.
Qualified and quantified savings opportunities, structured within a deployment plan. - Operational and tool-supported monitoring of the deployment plan.
- Operational and tool-supported monitoring of the deployment plan.
Business Cases & Customer Testimonials
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Business Case
IT cost benchmark for the IT department of a retail player (full scope of the IT cost model).
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Comparison of the IT cost model (≈100 KPIs) with a reference panel: cost benchmarking against market best practices, identification of savings opportunities, action plan, and executive-level presentation for the COMEX. Deliverables: analysis and structuring of the IT cost model, benchmark results vs panel, executive presentation materials, action plan.
“A clear and structuring benchmark that enabled a better understanding of IT costs and supported management decision-making.”
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