For instance, since July, Schleiden and his team have worked with approximately 300 of YRC's software vendors to see if it would be possible to "park" unused seat licenses until the economy improves. Parked seats are set aside and licensed at a price that's significantly lower than the per-user price in the contract. Once the economy improves, the parties unpark the seats and revert to the original cost structure.

So far, YRC has been successful with about 80% of the vendors it has contacted, including providers of application software, technical tools and database systems, says Schleiden.

3. Use Your Leverage.

But renegotiation after the fact is never easy. Given the difficulty of adjusting a license in midstream, the best cost-saving opportunities are at the front end of a contract, when the vendor knows that you can still walk. For example, vendor pricing models are often poorly documented, says Wang, so before you sign, make sure you completely understand the terms of pricing and use them to your advantage. "It's more cost-effective to flex up," he says.

That means, for example, that a customer with 1,000 users should at the onset of contract negotiations and then add sets of 100 more licenses as needed, Wang says.