This Systemic Value Engineering engagement identified $2,043,600 in Ghost Capital across Meridian Health Systems' IT estate — capital frozen in underutilised infrastructure, enterprise shelfware, oversized cloud instances, and legacy maintenance contracts across three clinical sites. A Randomness Index of 68/100 confirms significant operational drag that is directly recoverable without impacting service delivery.
The highest Ghost Capital dimension is Enterprise Licensing (Shelfware) at $812,400, driven by a 2021 enterprise agreement renewal that pre-provisioned seats for a headcount expansion that did not materialise. With $1,226,160 in recoverable capital and an SVE Advisory Fee of $160,770 ($7,500 + 7.5% of Ghost Capital), Year 1 Net Surplus reaches $1,065,390 — no new budget required at any stage.
Recovered capital fully funds the transition to HPE GreenLake consumption-based infrastructure, delivering $612,000 in annual savings from Year 1 under the Expected Case scenario.
Ghost Capital is concentrated in Enterprise Licensing (Shelfware) — a 2021 enterprise agreement renewal pre-provisioned for 340 seats, of which 127 seats (37%) have no mapped active users. Recoverable within 0–60 days through structured license harvesting.
The second largest dimension, Edge & On-Prem (Legacy Cliff), reflects six server clusters in extended support at premium maintenance rates. The extended support premium across three sites totals $584,000 — avoidable immediately through GreenLake transition.
Cloud and Storage dimensions represent typical mid-market drift: oversized EC2 and Azure VM instances never right-sized post-launch, and 61% of hot-tier storage classified as cold based on 90-day access frequency analysis.
| # | Section | Recovery Action | Timeframe | Ghost Capital | Recoverable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | B — Licensing | Harvest 127 inactive enterprise seats across EHR, analytics, and productivity suites | 0–60 days | $812,400 | $487,440 |
| #2 | G — Edge/On-Prem | Exit extended support contracts; migrate 6 server clusters to HPE GreenLake | 60–120 days | $584,000 | $350,400 |
| #3 | E — Storage | Migrate cold-tier data from hot storage to archive; reclaim 61% of provisioned capacity | 30–90 days | $341,200 | $204,720 |
| #4 | C — Cloud | Right-size 43 oversized EC2/Azure instances to actual 90-day demand baseline | 30–60 days | $276,000 | $165,600 |
| #5 | A — SaaS | Cancel 89 inactive SaaS seats across 14 platforms; consolidate duplicate tools | 0–30 days | $178,000 | $106,800 |
| #6 | D — Compute/VM | Decommission 12 zombie VMs; consolidate 8 underutilised hosts | 30–90 days | $114,000 | $68,400 |
Recovery is sequenced across three phases to deliver fastest financial relief first. Phase 1 (0–60 days) focuses on SaaS seat cancellation and licensing harvest — zero infrastructure risk, immediate savings, recovering $594,240 before any infrastructure changes begin.
Phase 2 (30–90 days) addresses cloud right-sizing and storage tiering — executable in parallel with Phase 1, no downtime required for clinical systems. Together, Phases 1 and 2 recover $1,032,960 — 84% of total recoverable capital.
Phase 3 (60–180 days) completes the on-prem legacy migration to HPE GreenLake, eliminating the extended support premium permanently across all three Meridian campuses.
| Year | Current Cost | Future Cost | Annual Savings | Cumulative Savings | Net (incl. SVE Credit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $2,850,000 | $2,238,000 | $612,000 | $612,000 | $451,230 |
| Year 2 | $2,850,000 | $2,238,000 | $612,000 | $1,224,000 | $1,063,230 |
| Year 3 | $2,850,000 | $2,238,000 | $612,000 | $1,836,000 | $1,675,230 |
| 3-Year Total | $8,550,000 | $6,714,000 | $1,836,000 | $1,836,000 | $1,675,230 |
HPE GreenLake delivers $612,000 in annual savings — a 21.5% reduction in Meridian's $2,850,000 annual infrastructure cost. Payback of 1.4 years and 3-year ROI of 204% driven by elimination of extended support premiums and shift to a consumption-aligned operating model.
The self-funded model means no new capital budget is required. The $1,226,160 in recoverable Ghost Capital absorbs the GreenLake transition cost in full. Under the Best Case scenario, annual savings reach $734,400 with payback of 1.2 years. Even under Worst Case, annual savings of $489,600 deliver a compelling business case with payback under 2 years.
| Section | Area | Input Method | Data Source | Ghost Capital | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | SaaS & Software Licensing | CSV Import | HPE SAM Tool Intelligence | $178,000 | Complete |
| B | Enterprise Licensing (Shelfware) | CSV Import | HPE SAM TI · ServiceNow CMDB | $812,400 | Complete |
| C | Cloud Compute (Oversized Instances) | CSV Import | HPE CloudPhysics · AWS Cost Export | $276,000 | Complete |
| D | Compute & VMs (Zombie Capital) | CSV Import | HPE CloudPhysics · VMware vCenter | $114,000 | Complete |
| E | Storage Tiering (Hot Storage Waste) | CSV Import | HPE InfoSight · Consumption Analytics | $341,200 | Complete |
| F | Network (Dead Ports & Circuits) | Manual Entry | O8 Manual Template | $56,000 | Complete |
| G | Edge & On-Prem (Legacy Cliff) | CSV Import | HPE SAM TI · HPE InfoSight · Lansweeper | $584,000 | Complete |
| H | Data Capital (Fragmentation) | Manual Entry | O8 Manual Template | $82,000 | Complete |