The Challenge: Escalating Costs Across a Dual-Focus Energy Operation
The company is a leading energy producer in the Middle East with over 50,000 employees and a dual focus on traditional oil and gas operations and a growing portfolio of renewable energy initiatives. Salesforce was essential for managing customer relationships, tracking sustainability projects, and optimising operations across its global supply chain — from upstream production to downstream distribution and retail.
However, the existing Salesforce agreement had become increasingly misaligned with the company's operational reality. Costs were escalating as user adoption expanded across new business units and premium add-ons accumulated over successive contract terms. The agreement lacked flexibility to adapt to the fluctuating project demands inherent in energy operations — where workforce requirements shift with exploration cycles, project commissioning, and seasonal production patterns. And critically, the company had limited visibility into actual licence utilisation, making it impossible to distinguish productive investment from waste.
📚 Related Reading
Key Issues in the Existing Agreement
🔴 Problems Identified
- Escalating costs from increasing user adoption and premium add-ons
- Inflexible terms unable to accommodate project-based workforce fluctuations
- Misalignment between purchased features and actual operational needs
- Inefficient licence allocation across corporate, production, and renewable divisions
- $1.8M in underutilised features and redundant add-ons
🟢 What We Achieved
- 30% annual cost reduction through strategic renegotiation
- Scalable terms aligned with project-based workforce variations
- $1.8M in redundant features and add-ons permanently eliminated
- Licence allocations optimised across all operational divisions
- Price protections secured for future expansion phases
The Process: Redress Compliance's Five-Phase Approach
Phase 1: Usage and Deployment Analysis
Redress Compliance conducted a comprehensive audit of Salesforce usage across the company's corporate offices, production sites, and renewable energy project teams. We mapped actual feature utilisation against purchased licences to identify underutilised subscriptions, redundant add-ons, and over-provisioned editions. This included evaluating the effectiveness of advanced analytics and AI tools that had been added to the agreement in prior renewal cycles.
The audit revealed that several divisions held high-tier licences for users whose actual workflows were fully supported by standard editions. Analytics tools purchased for specific sustainability projects remained active — and billable — long after those projects had concluded. And licence counts across regional operations exceeded actual user populations by 20–30%, reflecting a persistent pattern of over-provisioning that no one had reviewed.
Phase 2: Needs Assessment
We collaborated with key stakeholders across the company's oil and gas operations, renewable energy division, supply chain management, and corporate functions to map critical Salesforce requirements. This needs assessment distinguished between genuinely essential capabilities — customer relationship management, sustainability reporting, operational analytics — and non-essential features that had been added incrementally but were no longer aligned with business priorities.
For the energy sector, this phase is particularly critical. The company's operations encompassed upstream exploration, midstream logistics, downstream retail, and a rapidly growing renewables portfolio — each with fundamentally different CRM and analytics needs. By mapping these precisely, we ensured the renegotiated contract invested in capabilities that drove measurable value while eliminating everything that did not.
Phase 3: Benchmarking and Strategy Development
We benchmarked the company's Salesforce costs, discount levels, and contract terms against other global energy companies of comparable size — including Middle Eastern, European, and North American peers. This benchmarking revealed that the company's per-user pricing was significantly above the median for energy companies with similar licence volumes, and that critical contract provisions including renewal flexibility, licence scalability, and price protection were weaker than industry norms.
Using this data, we developed a negotiation strategy tailored to the company's specific needs: immediate cost reduction through waste elimination, competitive repricing aligned with global energy benchmarks, and structural contract improvements including scalable licensing for project-based operations and innovation-aligned terms for the renewables division.
Phase 4: Negotiation and Agreement Optimisation
Redress Compliance presented Salesforce with a detailed proposal documenting inefficiencies in the current agreement, benchmarking comparisons against global energy peers, and a clear optimisation roadmap. The negotiation addressed three distinct value levers.
Lever 1: Enterprise Licence Repricing
We secured significant discounts on the company's enterprise licence base and renewables-specific analytics tools by demonstrating that current pricing exceeded global energy benchmarks. The repricing covered both existing licences and projected growth volumes for the company's expanding renewable energy operations.
Lever 2: Feature and Add-On Elimination
$1.8 million in underutilised features and redundant add-ons were identified and permanently removed from the agreement. These included analytics capabilities duplicated by the company's existing data platform, AI tools provisioned for pilots that were never scaled, integration connectors for legacy systems that had been decommissioned, and premium support tiers that exceeded actual service utilisation.
Lever 3: Scalable and Project-Aligned Terms
We negotiated flexible licensing terms that accommodated the company's project-based workforce variations — allowing licence volumes to scale up for major project commissioning phases and scale down during operational steady states. Price protections were secured for future expansions, ensuring cost predictability as the company's renewable energy initiatives scaled.
Salesforce renewal coming up? Get expert negotiation support.
Salesforce Negotiation →Phase 5: Governance and Implementation
Following the renegotiation, Redress Compliance implemented a governance framework to monitor Salesforce usage across all divisions and ensure ongoing optimisation. We delivered training sessions to IT and procurement teams on effective licence management, Salesforce pricing models, and renewal preparation strategies. Periodic reviews were established to ensure the Salesforce agreement remained aligned with the company's evolving operational and strategic priorities.
The Results: $5.6 Million in Savings with Scalable, Innovation-Ready Terms
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Savings (3-Year Term) | $5,600,000 |
| Annual Cost Reduction | 30% |
| Underutilised Features Eliminated | $1,800,000 |
| Contract Flexibility | ✓ Scalable terms for project-based operations |
| Price Protection | ✓ Growth caps for future expansion |
| Licence Alignment | ✓ Optimised across all operational divisions |
| Governance Framework | ✓ Usage monitoring + periodic reviews |
| Team Training | ✓ IT and procurement teams upskilled |
Redress Compliance's expertise in Salesforce negotiations enabled us to optimize costs while aligning our contract with current and future business needs. Their strategic approach has empowered us to focus on innovation and growth.
— CIO, Middle Eastern Energy Company
Why Middle Eastern Energy Companies Overpay for Salesforce
Energy companies in the Middle East face a unique combination of Salesforce licensing pressures that consistently lead to overspending. Understanding these dynamics is essential for any energy company in the region approaching a Salesforce renewal.
Dual-Track Operations Multiply Licence Complexity
Middle Eastern energy companies increasingly operate on two tracks simultaneously: traditional hydrocarbon production and a growing portfolio of renewable energy, hydrogen, and carbon capture initiatives. Each track generates distinct Salesforce requirements — different user populations, different CRM workflows, different analytics needs. Salesforce's account teams treat these as justification for separate licence pools, premium editions, and specialised add-ons for each division — rather than optimising entitlements across the entire enterprise.
Project-Based Workforce Creates Persistent Over-Provisioning
Energy operations are inherently project-driven. Exploration campaigns, facility construction, project commissioning, and maintenance shutdowns all create temporary workforce surges that require Salesforce access. When licence volumes are set at peak project staffing levels and the contract lacks flexibility to scale down, the company pays for surplus capacity during every operational steady state — which is most of the time.
Premium Add-On Accumulation
Like energy companies globally, Middle Eastern operators accumulate Salesforce add-ons over successive contract terms. AI and analytics tools provisioned for pilot programmes, integration connectors for systems that have since been replaced, and premium support tiers that exceed actual service needs all become permanent cost line items. In this engagement, $1.8 million in features fell into this category — features that delivered zero measurable business value.
Regional Pricing Opacity
Salesforce's pricing in the Middle East is particularly opaque. With fewer comparable deals in the region than in North America or Europe, local account teams have significant latitude to set prices above global benchmarks. Without independent benchmarking data that includes global energy peers, companies in the region have no objective basis for evaluating whether their terms are competitive.
The Middle East Energy Pattern
Middle Eastern energy companies are among the world's largest and most strategically important organisations — which makes them high-priority accounts for Salesforce and prime targets for premium pricing. The combination of dual-track operations, project-based workforce dynamics, and regional pricing opacity creates conditions where 25–40% of Salesforce spend delivers no incremental value. Independent negotiation support consistently closes this gap, redirecting savings toward the digital transformation and energy transition investments that drive long-term competitiveness.
Key Takeaways
- Usage analysis across all divisions is the foundation of effective negotiation. Energy companies with dual-track operations (hydrocarbon + renewables) must audit Salesforce utilisation across every division and geography to identify the waste hidden in complex, multi-division deployments.
- Needs assessment separates essential from accumulated. Distinguishing between features that drive core operations and features that were added incrementally for specific projects revealed $1.8 million in waste — and fundamentally shifted the negotiation dynamic.
- Global benchmarking overcomes regional pricing opacity. Middle Eastern energy companies face limited regional pricing transparency. Benchmarking against global energy peers — including European and North American operators — provides the objective data needed to challenge above-market terms.
- Scalable terms are essential for project-based operations. Energy companies need licensing that flexes with project cycles — not fixed volumes that force permanent over-provisioning. Scalable terms with price protection caps ensure cost predictability across operational phases.
- Renewable energy divisions need dedicated licence strategies. Emerging renewables operations have fundamentally different CRM requirements than traditional hydrocarbon divisions. Optimising Salesforce for both tracks under a unified agreement — rather than treating them as separate premium purchases — delivers significant savings.
- Governance prevents savings from eroding. Without ongoing usage monitoring and periodic reviews, Salesforce cost optimisation is temporary. The governance framework ensures the optimised position is maintained as the company's operations evolve.
How Redress Compliance Optimises Salesforce Agreements
Salesforce Renewal Coming Up? Don't Negotiate Alone.
Middle Eastern energy companies consistently overpay for Salesforce by 25–40% — especially those with dual-track operations spanning hydrocarbons and renewables. Our proven methodology combines granular usage analysis, global energy benchmarking, and expert negotiation to deliver substantial savings while securing scalable, innovation-ready contract terms. Get a confidential assessment today.