Switching Cost Itemized Worksheet

Version 2026.05

Forrester TEI / Gartner TCO aligned

Easy RFP Editorial

How to use this sheet. Fill in your assumptions in the orange-bordered cells. The six line items recalculate. The scenario block at the bottom flags whether your switch is financially defensible or whether you should stay and renegotiate. Bring the printed sheet to your finance partner and the procurement board.

Section A · Your Assumptions

Team size (users) Current vendor type Archive size (historical RFPs) Integrations to rebuild Blended labour rate (€/hr) Projected 18-month savings (€)

Section B · Six Line Items

#	Line item	What's included (and what vendors usually omit)	Calc cost
1	Licence overlap	3-month parallel run between incumbent and new vendor. Cannot be zero unless monthly rolling term or perfect gap timing.	—
2	Data migration	SOW + the long tail (custom fields, archived format, attachments, award decisions). Average 66% overrun on SOW.	—
3	Training (loaded labour)	~14 hrs/user fully loaded: vendor sessions + self-exploration + "I broke it" support time. Not the headline onboarding hours.	—
4	Productivity dip	30% / 15% / 5% drop across months 1, 2, 3. Per Gartner enterprise software adoption research. The line vendors never quote.	—
5	Change management	Internal comms, champion network, brown-bag sessions, manager 1:1s, board update deck.	—
6	Integration rebuild	SSO / CRM / Calendar / Finance / BI rebuilt against new vendor's API. The other line vendors never quote.	—
SUBTOTAL · Six itemized line items			—

Contingency line

Per Forrester TEI guidance, add a risk-adjustment line for unknown unknowns. Default applied below: 20% of subtotal.

Total first-year switching cost

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Section C · Scenario Verdict

Section D · Notes for the board pack

Attach this worksheet as Appendix A to your procurement business case.
Quote sources inline. Forrester TEI methodology is the standard reference for B2B SaaS switching cost defensibility.
If your verdict is "stay and renegotiate," bring the competing quote to your incumbent renewal conversation. Most enterprise contracts have a 10–25% renegotiation lever at renewal.
Re-run this worksheet in 6 months if conditions change (team size, integration footprint, strategic capability gaps).

Sources & methodology Forrester Research, Total Economic Impact methodology · forrester.com
Gartner, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) framework · gartner.com
Easy RFP internal benchmark: 7 anonymised enterprise migrations 2024–2026 (mean team 18, mean volume 140 RFPs/year). Methodology available on request.
Ranges are illustrative defaults. Replace with your own quotes in the override column for board-ready accuracy.