Everything you need, none of the upsell.
Real deliverables, with the boundaries written down. So you know what you're paying for and what counts as extra.
Telus, Rogers, Bell, Starlink.
Internet, mobile, and SIP trunks. Reviewed annually, renegotiated at renewal, monitored for outages and overages.
M365, Adobe, Zoom, anything else.
Annual license review, tier changes, and bulk negotiation. Most clients leave 15 to 25% on the table here.
Dell, Lenovo, HP, Apple.
Volume pricing, warranty management, lifecycle planning. So you're not procuring at retail.
Consultants, contractors, MSPs.
Even other service providers. We help you scope, evaluate, and contract. So you don't get locked in.
The order we work in.
A clear sequence so you can budget time, money, and risk against the work.
Inventory.
Every contract documented: renewal date, term, rate, usage, and exit clauses.
Optimize.
Cancel what's unused. Renegotiate what's renewing. Replace what's outdated.
Operate.
We're the named contact. Vendor calls and renewals flow through us, not your team.
Review.
Quarterly summary of changes, savings, and upcoming renewals. So nothing surprises finance.
Get a quote on vendor management.
Tell us a bit about your environment and we'll come back with a scoped proposal in two business days. No obligation, no pressure.
Request a Quote Back to AdvisorySomeone in your corner during every vendor renewal and negotiation.
The average BC or Alberta business with 20-60 staff manages a surprising number of vendor relationships: an ISP for internet connectivity, a telco for mobile plans, a Microsoft licensing agreement, hardware vendors for laptops and servers, a backup vendor, a line-of-business software vendor, and potentially a security tool vendor. Each of those vendors has a renewal date, a contract term, and pricing that is almost always negotiable if you know what the alternatives are and how to ask. Most business owners manage these renewals themselves, or delegate them to an office manager without IT expertise, and end up paying list price on multi-year contracts that they did not optimize.
North Star's vendor management service takes those relationships off your plate. We track all your vendor contracts and renewal dates in a centralized register. Before each renewal, we research the current market pricing, identify alternatives, and either negotiate the renewal on your behalf or give you a specific recommendation on whether to renew, switch, or restructure the agreement. For a Terrace-area business paying above-market pricing on a telco contract with three years left, vendor management involves tracking that contract, identifying the exit window, and either negotiating a rate reduction or planning the switch at contract end. For a Prince George professional services firm whose Microsoft licensing has grown organically with the company and now includes duplicate or unused licenses, vendor management involves a full license audit and a restructured agreement that reflects actual usage.
Vendor management deliverables.
- Vendor and contract register: complete inventory of all technology vendors, contract terms, renewal dates, and current spend. Maintained as a live document and reviewed quarterly.
- Renewal management: North Star tracks every renewal date and initiates the review process at least 90 days in advance. You never miss a renewal window or auto-renew a contract you intended to renegotiate.
- Market pricing research: before every significant renewal, we research current market pricing and alternatives so you negotiate from an informed position.
- Negotiation support: we participate in vendor negotiations on your behalf, or we prepare you with the specific asks, alternatives, and fallback positions to negotiate effectively yourself.
- Microsoft licensing optimization: annual review of your Microsoft 365 licensing to identify unused licenses, over-licensed users, and opportunities to consolidate into a more cost-effective SKU.
- Telco and ISP management: review of internet, mobile, and telephone contracts. Identification of better connectivity options in BC and AB markets, including business Starlink where applicable for remote sites.
- Vendor performance review: quarterly assessment of whether each vendor is meeting their service commitments. Issues are escalated with a documented record rather than informal complaints that get lost.
- New vendor evaluation: when you need to add a new tool or service, we evaluate the options, check vendor security and financial stability, and provide a recommendation with a rationale.
BC and AB businesses with multiple vendor contracts and no dedicated IT leadership.
Vendor management is most valuable for businesses that have accumulated vendor contracts over time without a strategic review, businesses in a growth phase where licensing and contracts need to scale with the company, and businesses that have recently gone through an acquisition or merger where two sets of vendor agreements need to be rationalized. In BC and Alberta, the industries where vendor management has the most impact are construction (multiple telco and connectivity contracts for sites), professional services (large Microsoft licensing agreements and line-of-business software), and multi-location retail (ISP agreements at every location).
Businesses without an internal IT leader often have no one who owns the vendor relationship at a senior level. Vendors know this. Auto-renewal at list price is the default because there is nobody managing the process proactively. North Star fills that ownership gap without the cost of a full-time IT manager or a vCIO. The vendor management service can be delivered independently of managed IT services if you have internal IT capacity for day-to-day operations but need the strategic vendor layer managed externally.
For businesses working with a Microsoft reseller or a hardware VAR, having an independent IT advisor review the reseller's recommendations and pricing protects you from being sold what the reseller needs to sell rather than what you actually need. North Star is vendor-agnostic: we have no incentive to recommend any specific vendor over another and we disclose any referral arrangements transparently before making a recommendation.
Monthly retainer based on contract portfolio complexity.
Vendor management is priced as a monthly retainer based on the number of vendor contracts under management and the volume of renewals in a given year. It can be bundled with vCIO or managed IT services, or engaged as a standalone service for businesses with capable day-to-day IT but no vendor management process. Contact North Star for a proposal based on your current vendor inventory.
What clients ask before starting.
Can you negotiate with vendors we have already signed with?
Yes, subject to contract terms. Multi-year contracts typically have fixed pricing for the committed term but may have clauses for early renegotiation if usage changes significantly. Annual contracts and contracts with auto-renewal clauses are renegotiable at each renewal window. We review your existing contracts and identify the specific windows and levers available for each vendor before the renewal date arrives. Even within a locked contract term, it is sometimes possible to negotiate additional value (expanded support, additional licenses, extended terms at a discounted rate) without breaking the existing pricing.
Do you receive referral fees from vendors?
North Star discloses all referral arrangements transparently. Where we have a referral or reseller agreement with a vendor (for example, Microsoft or hardware distributors), we disclose this before making a recommendation involving that vendor. We do not recommend vendors based on referral fees; the recommendation is based on fit for your environment. If the best solution for your needs is a vendor we have no commercial relationship with, that is what we recommend.
What happens when a vendor does not deliver on their commitments?
Vendor performance issues are addressed through a documented escalation process. North Star maintains a record of all performance commitments (SLAs, uptime guarantees, response time commitments) and tracks them against actual delivery. When a vendor misses a commitment, we escalate formally with written documentation of the miss and a request for remediation or credit. For persistent performance failures, we research alternatives and make a recommendation to switch at the appropriate contract window, giving you a clear timeline and cost comparison.
Can you help consolidate our Microsoft 365 licensing?
Yes. Microsoft 365 licensing optimization is a common engagement because licensing tends to grow organically (one license added per hire) without periodic review of whether the SKU mix still makes sense. We audit your current assigned licenses, identify users who are assigned Business Premium when Business Standard suffices, identify shared mailboxes or device accounts consuming full user licenses unnecessarily, and produce a restructured licensing recommendation with the cost delta. Most businesses save measurably on their annual Microsoft spend through a licensing audit.
Vendor-agnostic management with no hidden referral incentives.
North Star is based in Prince George and serves BC, Alberta, and the Yukon. We manage vendor relationships for businesses across industries and geographies in Western Canada, including remote and resource-industry clients where vendor options are sometimes more limited and contract terms need to reflect operational realities like satellite connectivity and remote site access. We are vendor-agnostic, which means our recommendations reflect your interests rather than referral economics. We use AI-assisted contract analysis to process renewal terms and pricing benchmarks faster than a manual review, giving you a more complete picture of your options before every negotiation. You keep the vendor relationship; we manage the work around it.