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Ask HN: What are some really costly solutions that companies use?

6 points by FahadUddin92 ↗ HN
I am trying to learn what are the tools/solutions that cost +$100,000 per month to companies but companies use them. The reason for asking is to understand there can be products where a single deal can bring in +$100,000 in sales.

4 comments

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anoncoward111
I work for a large corporate provider of heating oil. Here are some of the major expenses I can think of based on their public financials.

1.2b in revenue

700m spent on purchasing oil using various hedges and supplier contracts

~450m spent on salaries, rent payments, other opex/capex, interest payments and taxes

~50m in yearly corporate profit

Some of the largest line items on the company expense reports almost certainly are:

1) Corporate real estate

2) ADP payroll

3) Whoever sells them off-the-shelf trucks and vans for delivery

4) Salesforce CRM licenses and cloud storage backup for all customer data and recorded calls

5) Citrix remote desktops

6) Cisco phones

7) Plantronics headsets

8) Whoever sold all the office furniture and the janitorial service contracts

9) Whoever sold them loans

10) Whoever sold them background checks and etc which I think is also ADP

11) Their insurance broker(s) and carrier(s), so figure like Aetna and Aon