Do this: Paste the line items from your last software invoice, not the contract, into a free chatbot. Two minutes names the upgrades nobody ordered and what each costs a year.
PASTE THIS
You are a procurement analyst. Below are line items from one software invoice. Label each line: base subscription, support tier, usage meter, seat count, or version upgrade. Then list only the lines that look like an upgrade or add-on the customer may not have ordered, with amounts. Next, write one short email to the account manager asking for those lines to return to the previous tier, naming the amounts and requesting written confirmation before the next invoice. Use only figures from my list. If a line is ambiguous, mark it 'ask the vendor'.
You'll get: A short list with amounts and a send-ready email, one week before the next invoice is the deadline that matters.
The upgrade question, in four lines
Send this to the account manager, not to support: 'Before renewal, please confirm in writing three things: the annual price of staying on the version we run today, the date that version stops receiving security patches, and which line items on our last invoice are upgrades or add-ons we did not request, with amounts. If the first answer is not available, please confirm that too.' Two details make it work. It goes to the account manager, who owns the renewal number; support does not. And the reply gets saved, because a written refusal is the only leverage a small account holds when the price conversation restarts.
Vendors stopped raising prices. They retire a version, rename the replacement an upgrade, and let the invoice argue. 28 percent of a software budget goes to changes the buyer would not have chosen, and most of it is approved by nobody at all, every month, by default.
A survey of 2,018 IT decision-makers in the US and UK puts 28 percent of the software budget on upgrades and licensing changes the buyer did not choose. Censuswide ran it for Origina. 95 percent had paid for at least one in three years, expecting worse reliability, The Register reports.
So what: before your renewal, get the annual price of staying on the version installed, in writing, and set it beside the upgrade quote. If the vendor will not name it, that silence belongs in the file before you sign.
A 2012 test account still had the password 'Password1'
A forgotten test account created in 2012 let an intruder into a Welsh public data body. Ransomware followed: 42 GB taken, 182.7 GB encrypted, and the records of 3,300 people, mostly children. The ICO reprimanded both organisations. The Register has the reprimand. So what: this week, delete every admin account nobody has logged into for 90 days, and confirm no two machines share a local admin password.
Leaked AI keys ran up bills in the hundreds
Attackers broke into an older system behind OpenCode's console, reaching API keys that 1.4 percent of users had stored there. Developers woke to spend alerts; some accounts were charged over $1,000. TechCrunch reports Anthropic and Google blocked the keys and OpenAI refunded credits. So what: before Friday, put a hard monthly cap on every AI account with a card attached, and rotate keys pasted into a third-party console.
Salesforce is buying your marketing tool's owner
Salesforce agreed to buy Braze, which makes AI tools for customer data and messaging, for $5.66 billion, or $47.50 a share in cash. Braze closed at $30.04 on Monday and jumped more than 50 percent. CNBC has the terms; closing is expected in fiscal 2028. So what: before your next marketing renewal, get in writing who owns the contract after the close and how the price changes at the first renewal under new ownership.
This week's question: a vendor says the version in use is being retired next year. Does the business have to move? Not on the announcement date. Three facts decide it. When security patches stop, because that is the real deadline and it usually lands later than the retirement notice. Whether the old version still works with the rest of the stack, so test the one integration that carries money. Whether the new version is priced per seat or per use, since that change often costs more than the version itself. Ask for the patch date in writing this week. If the vendor will not give one, the upgrade is optional until they do.
Which line on your software bill grew last year without a decision?
A. A support or tier upgrade
B. A usage meter
C. Seats for people who left
D. Nothing grew
Reply with one letter — results next issue.
Google's London cloud region fell over for hours this week, taking UK banks with it. Which single zone failed?
Answer tomorrow — and no, we are not printing it here.
YESTERDAY'S ANSWER
Nvidia shipped new open-weight models this week so agents can run inside a company or on a PC. What is the model family called?
Nemotron 3.5. Nvidia's new open-weight models are aimed at running agents in the enterprise and on PCs (TechCrunch, AI Business).
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