Every vendor tells you the deal is best in class. Benchmarks from comparable closed agreements are how you check: discount bands, escalator caps, and term precedents, matched to your size, industry, and product mix.
The presenters in this film are AI generated avatars. The service, the commercial terms, and the guidance are real.
Benchmarking: How to Check What You Are Being Told
Every vendor says the deal is best in class. Benchmarks from comparable closed agreements are how you check: discount bands, escalator caps and term precedents matched to your size, industry and product mix.
In this film: Best in class, according to whom · What cannot be negotiated blind · How the grid gets built · What you get, and when · Who buys it
Benchmarking is bought when a number needs checking: a renewal quote, a discount the account team calls best in class, or contract terms nobody can compare because nobody sees other companies' agreements.
It fits procurement teams that want the reference point before responding, and legal teams that want term precedents, escalator caps, audit clauses, swap rights, from the market rather than from the vendor's template.
Without benchmarks, three questions go unanswered in every deal:
The benchmark grid answers all of it from comparable closed agreements, matched to your size, industry, and geography.
Four phases deliver the grid: scope and dimensions agreed, the peer set assembled from active engagements, the benchmark built with high, low, and median bands, and the readout handed to procurement and legal with the recommended posture.
| Deliverable | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Pricing benchmark grid | Unit pricing across the peer set with high, low, and median bands by metric and tier. |
| Discount benchmark | Discount norms by product, edition, and volume: where the ceiling sits versus the opening quote. |
| Term benchmark | Escalator caps, audit clauses, swap rights, and metric definitions across the peer set. |
| Posture and walk away point | The recommended stance and the credible alternative that resets vendor behavior. |
| Procurement playbook | The concession ladder, executive moves, and red line list briefed to your team. |
Every benchmark engagement draws on the same research base we publish. Start with the reports; the engagement applies them to your numbers.
How prices moved across 11 vendors: the composite index, the list versus realized gap, and the AI premium.
2026 ResearchWhat enterprises actually negotiate off list across eleven vendors, in bands, with the levers that move the number.
2026 ResearchHow much paid software goes unused, where it hides, and the recovery plays.
2026 ResearchEvery major vendor price action across seven years, on one timeline.
2026 ResearchWhich levers actually move the realized price, ranked by effect.
2026 ResearchWhere unbudgeted AI spend is accumulating and the governance that contains it.
2026 ResearchWhen leaving vendor support pays, what it saves, and the risk math.
2026 ResearchThe mechanisms behind systematic overpayment across software and cloud.
Most published benchmarks are surveys of what people say; ours are drawn from engagements: real closed agreements across 500+ deals and 11 publishers, matched to your profile before any band is quoted.
Independence keeps the bands honest: no reseller margin, no vendor money, and no reason to flatter anyone's quote. If your deal is already strong, the grid says so and you sign with confidence.
The published research above is the public layer of the same base: the Price Increase Index, the Discount Benchmark, and the Shelfware Report all draw on the engagement data your grid will.
Benchmarks run fixed fee, all inclusive, quoted on scope before we start. Negotiations that follow run fixed fee or on contingency at 25 percent of the savings delivered beyond the vendor's best offer: you keep 75 percent, and if we save you nothing, you pay nothing.
What benchmarked negotiations produce, on the record.
Kroger resolved a $20M Oracle Java claim at zero cost.
✓ Published case studyA UK financial services firm secured 35 percent savings at its EA renewal.
✓ Published case studyAn Australian telecom won 30 percent Salesforce savings.
✓ Published case studyA global bank cut its Broadcom VMware renewal by 50 percent.
Three dimensions, separately or together: unit pricing, discount levels, and contract terms, escalator caps, audit clauses, swap rights, metric definitions, across any of the eleven publisher practices.
From engagements: comparable closed agreements across 500+ deals, matched to your size, industry, and geography. Bands are quoted with high, low, and median so the answer is a range you can negotiate inside, not a single folkloric number.
3 to 6 weeks depending on dimensions and publisher count, timed so it lands before your response is due.
That is the most common use: the quote and contract sample come into scope, and the grid answers where each element sits against the peer set.
Then the grid says so, in writing, and you sign with confidence. Knowing you are at market is worth as much as discovering you are not.
The continuous version: your tier 2 and 3 portfolio benchmarked on subscription with renewal alerts, while this engagement delivers deep grids on the deals that matter most.
Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce, IBM, Broadcom VMware, AWS, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Workday, Cisco, and the GenAI vendors, plus the wider portfolio through the program.
Fixed fee per grid, all inclusive, quoted on scope before we start. Negotiations that follow run fixed fee or on contingency at 25 percent of the savings delivered beyond the vendor's best offer: you keep 75 percent, and if we save you nothing, you pay nothing.
The grid, the posture, and the walk away point, delivered before your response is due.
One letter a month. Negotiation moves, audit signals, and price book shifts.