CIO Playbook: Adobe Support & Customer Success Management in Enterprise ETLAs

CIO Playbook: Adobe Support & Customer Success Management in Enterprise ETLAs

Introduction

Large global enterprises often rely on Adobe’s software (Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud, etc.) to drive creative and business operations. These organizations typically enter into an Enterprise Term License Agreement (ETLA) – a three-year, enterprise-wide licensing contract that bundles Adobe products with volume discounts and annual payments for predictability.

However, maximizing value from an ETLA requires more than just bulk licensing; it demands a strategic approach to support and customer success management. This playbook provides CIOs with advisory guidance (in the style of a Gartner research note) on how to navigate Adobe’s support offerings and engage Customer Success resources to ensure business objectives are met.

We cover support tier structures, negotiation tactics, license optimization strategies, governance practices, and escalation procedures – all tailored for large enterprises under an Enterprise Terms and License Agreement (ETLA).

(Note: Throughout this playbook, “Standard Support” refers to Adobe’s basic support included with enterprise licenses, and “Premium Support” refers to advanced paid support tiers, recently rebranded by Adobe as Expert Success (standard) and Ultimate Success (premium) plans.)

Adobe Support Offerings in an ETLA Context

Adobe’s support is offered at two main levels – Standard vs. Premium – and ETLA customers can choose the tier that fits their needs. By default, an ETLA includes Adobe’s standard enterprise support, which is often included at no extra cost with the licenses.

Customers have the option to upgrade to premium support for an additional fee.

The support tiers are structured as follows:

• Standard Support (Expert Success Plan) – Included with the Adobe enterprise subscription. Provides core support services, including access to Adobe’s support portal, knowledge base, community forums, and the ability to log support tickets. Standard support typically offers business-hours technical support for non-critical issues and may include 24×7 assistance only for critical Priority 1 issues. Response times are reasonable, but not as fast as those in premium tiers. A pooled team delivers support from Adobe support engineers, and interactions are generally reactive (you contact Adobe when an issue arises). There is usually no additional fee for this base level beyond your license costs, and it is designed to meet routine support needs.
• Premium Support (Ultimate Success Plan) – An add-on service (often with a significant cost, e.g. priced as a percentage of your license spend or a fixed yearly fee) that provides enhanced, high-touch support. Premium support offers 24×7 coverage for critical issues, faster response SLAs across all priority levels, and access to designated support personnel. For example, Premium (Ultimate) customers receive a dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) or support lead, often a named Customer Success Manager (CSM), and enjoy a “white-glove” support experience. Proactive services include regular system health checks, priority case handling, accelerated escalations, and often quarterly service reviews with Adobe. Premium support is structured to integrate with ETLAs by embedding these advanced support commitments into the enterprise agreement. In late 2022, Adobe rebranded its premium offerings under the “Success” plans umbrella – Expert Success (the standard included tier) and Ultimate Success (the top tier, akin to the former “Premier” support). The Ultimate plan includes strategic guidance such as roadmap reviews, key event support, and personalized success planning, making it especially valuable for complex Adobe deployments in large enterprises.

Table: Comparison of Standard vs. Premium Support

How these integrate into an ETLA: When negotiating an ETLA, Adobe will typically include standard support by default. Premium support will usually appear as a separate line item or an additional service in the agreement. However, enterprises have the leverage to integrate premium support into the overall ETLA package.

This means rather than treating it as an optional extra each year, it becomes an inherent component of the three-year contract with agreed service levels. By doing so, CIOs can ensure consistent support quality throughout the ETLA term and potentially secure better pricing, such as locking in the cost or discounting it as part of a bundle.

In practice, some large customers insist that premium support be bundled into the ETLA, especially if Adobe’s products are mission-critical to their operations.

Example: A global manufacturer on a 3-year ETLA initially had only standard support, but after a severe outage impacted their design teams, the CIO upgraded to Premium Support. Instead of paying list price as a separate add-on, they negotiated to include the premium Ultimate Success plan in their ETLA renewal. This meant Adobe assigned a dedicated Technical Account Manager to their account, and all support SLAs and services were written into the ETLA contract. As a result, when minor incidents occurred across different regions, the company received 24×7 attention and quick resolutions, validating the value of integrated premium support.

Negotiating Premium Support as Part of the ETLA

CIOs should treat support as a negotiable element of the ETLA, not just a fixed add-on. When entering or renewing an ETLA, it’s wise to discuss support terms alongside license quantities and pricing.

Here are strategies to incorporate Premium Support into your ETLA package rather than as a standalone line item:

• Bundle Support with Licensing Commitments: Leverage the scale of your enterprise agreement to secure a better support deal. If Adobe’s initial proposal lists Premium Support as an extra 10% of the contract value, negotiate to reduce or waive this uplift. For example, you might say: “We are committing to a large volume of licenses over three years; in return, we expect Adobe’s highest support level to be included as part of this investment.” Adobe sales teams have some flexibility – they may not discount the support SKU directly (they often claim support pricing is standard). Still, they can adjust discounting on the licenses or offer a larger overall discount to effectively offset the support cost. The end goal is to make premium support part of the overall value bundle. This could mean getting it “free” or at a steep discount in exchange for a larger license purchase or multi-product deal.
• Tie Premium Support to ETLA Term and Spend: If a separate support contract is unappealing, insist that the ETLA includes a Support Exhibit or section specifying the support level (e.g., “Adobe will provide Ultimate Support for the duration of this ETLA at no additional charge” or at a fixed annual fee baked into the annual payment). Emphasize how critical Adobe’s uptime is to your business to justify this ask. Often, suppose a customer is significantly increasing their Adobe footprint (e.g., rolling out Adobe Experience Cloud modules or thousands of new Creative Cloud seats enterprise-wide). In that case, Adobe will be more amenable to include premium support as a sweetener for the deal. Use that to your advantage during negotiations.
• Trade-offs and Concessions: Approach negotiations with a give-and-take mindset. If Adobe is resistant to giving Premium Support outright, propose concessions: for instance, “If we pay for Ultimate Support, we expect an equivalent concession in license pricing or extra value.” One tactic is a multi-year commitment, where you agree to a longer ETLA term or higher license volumes in exchange for enhanced support. Another is product adoption: if you agree to pilot or adopt a new Adobe product or cloud service, request premium support as part of the package for no extra cost. From Adobe’s perspective, securing a larger deal may justify throwing in premium support. Remember: Everything is one pot of money – you can negotiate support fees just like license fees. Ultimately, Adobe cares about the total contract value; how it’s allocated (licenses vs. support) can be adjusted to meet your requirements.
• Get SLAs and Terms in Writing: As you negotiate, ensure that the specifics of the support offering are documented in the ETLA. This means the ETLA should include an addendum or schedule that delineates the support level, the included services, and the service-level agreements (SLAs) for response and resolution. For example, if you are paying for Premium Support, the contract should state something like: “Priority 1 issues: 24/7 support with a 30-minute initial response; Priority 2: 24/5 support with a 2-hour response,” etc. This avoids ambiguity later and holds Adobe accountable. It should also list any dedicated resources (e.g., “Named Technical Account Manager and quarterly onsite review meetings”) that were promised. By baking these benefits into the ETLA, you ensure they are not optional or easily omitted.
• Leverage Renewal Time: The period leading up to an ETLA renewal is your prime opportunity to negotiate support. If you have been on standard support but found it lacking, gather data on support issues (e.g., any major incidents, slow responses, or pain points) from the last term. Use those as justification for why you need premium support going forward. If Adobe wants to renew your business, they will often be willing to improve support terms to maintain the relationship. Similarly, if you already have premium support and find it valuable, you can negotiate to keep it included and even request additional perks (like more training or consulting hours) at renewal time by highlighting the mutual benefits gained.

Example – Negotiation in Practice: A financial services firm was renewing its ETLA and wanted to add Adobe’s Marketo marketing software to their bundle. Adobe’s proposal listed Ultimate Support at an extra 15% fee. The CIO countered that since they were significantly expanding their spend by adding a new product line, Adobe should include Ultimate Support as part of the overall ETLA. In internal negotiations, Adobe agreed to a compromise: they added Ultimate Support for all products but spread a portion of its cost into the license fees (so the line item showed a lower support fee). In effect, the firm got the high-level support it needed without a big noticeable surcharge, and Adobe secured the multi-product deal. The ETLA contract explicitly detailed the support SLAs and named contacts (TAM and CSM) provided, ensuring the firm reaped the full benefit of premium support over the next three years.

Working with Adobe Customer Success Managers (CSMs)

Signing an ETLA is just the beginning – to extract maximum value from Adobe investments, CIOs should actively engage Adobe’s Customer Success Managers (CSMs). A CSM is typically assigned to large enterprise accounts, especially those with premium support or significant spending, as a post-sales advisor and advocate.

Here’s how CIOs should work with CSMs to drive success:

• Establish a Partnership: Treat the Adobe CSM as an extension of your team. Their role is to ensure your organization attains its desired outcomes with Adobe’s products. Early in the ETLA term (or right after contract signing), schedule a kickoff meeting with your assigned CSM. In this meeting, map out your key objectives, such as increasing Creative Cloud adoption across global design teams or successfully deploying Adobe Sign to all departments by a specific date. A good CSM will want to understand your business goals and will help craft a customer success plan aligned with those goals. Ensure the CSM understands the strategic importance of Adobe tools in your organization (e.g., “Our marketing operations run on Adobe Experience Cloud – uptime and full utilization are crucial”). This context helps them prioritize your needs.
• License Utilization Reviews: One of the most valuable activities a CSM can facilitate is regular license utilization reviews. Adobe has data on how many licenses are assigned and, in some cases, how actively they are being used (for cloud services). CIOs should ask the CSM to provide usage reports regularly. For example, if you have 5,000 Creative Cloud for Enterprise seats, how many users logged in this quarter? If you have an Adobe Analytics server call quota, how much of it have you consumed year-to-date? These metrics allow you to see if you’re under-utilizing (or over-utilizing) your entitlements. Work with the CSM to interpret the data: Are there any departments with a high number of unused licenses? Do certain user groups barely touch some products (like Adobe XD or Illustrator)? Such insights are gold for optimization. A proactive CSM might even flag usage anomalies to you, for instance, telling you, “We noticed 300 Acrobat Pro licenses haven’t been activated at all in the last 6 months; perhaps they can be reallocated or reduced at renewal.”
• Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs): Make QBRs with Adobe a standard practice. Ideally, once a quarter (or at least twice a year), the CIO’s team, the Adobe CSM, and sometimes a technical consultant or TAM should hold a structured review meeting. In a QBR, cover key topics: license consumption vs. purchase, support ticket metrics (number of tickets, average response/resolution time, any escalations), new Adobe product features or releases relevant to your usage, training needs, and upcoming business initiatives that might require Adobe solutions. The CSM should present a summary of your account’s health – e.g., “You’re currently using 85% of your Creative Cloud licenses; 15% are unassigned or idle. Let’s discuss if those can be reassigned or if we should consider adjusting your license count.” Also, the QBR is a forum to address any concerns: if support has been slow or if a promised feature isn’t delivering value, bring it up. By having these regular checkpoints, you ensure that there are no surprises when it comes time to renew or true up your contract. It also keeps Adobe accountable, helping you achieve value continuously, not just at sales or renewal time.
• Success Plan Creation: Work with the CSM to create a formal Success Plan for your Adobe deployment. A success plan typically outlines your business objectives, the Adobe solutions in use, key milestones, and metrics of success. For example, a success plan might state: “Objective: Improve collaboration and asset reuse in Creative Cloud. Success Metrics: 90% of designers using Adobe Cloud Libraries; reduce redundant asset creation by 30% in a year.” The plan would then outline actions such as training sessions on Cloud Libraries, setting up an internal champions program, and quarterly check-ins to measure progress. Having this plan written down and agreed upon with Adobe ensures both parties are on the same page regarding what “success” looks like. The CSM will use this to steer Adobe’s resources, such as scheduling an expert to run a workshop for your team or providing best practices documentation, in service of your goals. For the CIO, the success plan is a tool to hold Adobe accountable. If certain goals are not being met, you can push for corrective action. Maybe you need more training, or perhaps a product limitation is hindering adoption and requires engineering’s attention.
• Identify Optimization Opportunities: Through close collaboration, CSMs can also help uncover opportunities to optimize your licensing and usage. Adobe’s product landscape is broad, and often enterprises have overlapping capabilities or unused features. A CSM can point out, for example, if you own Adobe Sign licenses that aren’t being used because another e-signature tool is in place – an opportunity to consolidate and save costs. Or they might notice your users are consistently asking for a feature available in a higher product edition or another Adobe service – information that could inform a better packaging of products in the future (maybe even mid-term upsell with negotiated terms). CIOs should encourage CSMs to provide benchmarking and best practices: How does our license utilization compare to similar customers? Are we falling behind in adopting a new tool (e.g., Adobe XD) that could improve productivity? These discussions can inform internal decisions about training or adjusting the license mix.

In summary, the CSM is your ally to maximize ROI on the ETLA. Utilize their insights to continuously align Adobe’s offerings with your enterprise’s evolving needs.

Periodic Reviews, License Right-Sizing, and Success Planning

Effective management of an Adobe ETLA requires continuous oversight, not just end-of-term true-ups. CIOs should conduct periodic reviews of Adobe license usage and proactively right-size their license allocation.

Coupled with that, a focus on success planning ensures the organization is not just using Adobe tools but using them effectively.

• Regular License Audits: Conduct an internal audit of Adobe license utilization at a set cadence (e.g., quarterly). This involves examining how many licenses are deployed vs. how many are being actively used. For user-based licenses (such as Creative Cloud named users), check the assignment logs and last login dates. IT asset management tools or Adobe’s Admin Console reports can help identify unused licenses. Engage department leaders in this process: share data like “Department X has 50 licenses assigned, but only 35 active users in the last 90 days”. This creates awareness that licenses = money and uncovers surplus. An example process some companies use is a quarterly license review meeting with each business unit: IT presents usage data, and the business either justifies the extra licenses or agrees to relinquish them. This practice prevents license hoarding and keeps the deployment size optimal.
• Right-Sizing and True-Ups: With ETLAs, you can typically only increase licenses during the term (and pay true-ups annually), but not decrease them until renewal. However, right-sizing is still crucial. If you identify consistent underuse in certain areas, you can plan to reduce those counts at the next renewal, thus lowering costs. If your agreement allows some flexibility (for example, swapping one product for another at true-up time or converting some all-app licenses to single-app licenses), use that to adjust the mix. Right-sizing can also mean reallocating licenses, ensuring that when one employee leaves, their Adobe license is promptly reassigned to someone who needs it rather than sitting dormant. Automation can help here – for instance, using Adobe’s user management API or a script to remove or flag users who haven’t logged in for 120 days. The bottom line: every license not in use is wasted spend, so maintain diligence to keep your deployment aligned with actual demand.
• Periodic Success Reviews: In addition to usage reviews, take a step back periodically to review whether you’re achieving the desired business outcomes from your Adobe investments. This is often done in collaboration with the CSM, as discussed, but internally, you should assess things like: Are our creative teams more productive with Creative Cloud? Is Marketing hitting its targets with the analytics and campaign tools? If not, why? These discussions might reveal the need for additional training or the need to enable certain features (e.g., “We have Adobe Analytics, but we haven’t implemented feature X that could give us better insights”). Use these insights to adjust your success plan. For instance, if the adoption of Adobe XD is low among UX designers, plan a refresher or enablement session to gather feedback on why they aren’t using it (maybe they need plugins or have an alternative tool). Periodic reviews ensure the technology is delivering value, not just sitting on the shelf.
• License Forecasting: As part of reviews, always look ahead. If a division of your company is expanding, anticipate the need for more Adobe licenses in that area and plan your budget or make adjustments accordingly. Conversely, if a project using many Adobe licenses is winding down, note that so you can reclaim those licenses or reduce counts at renewal. ETLAs often have annual true-up windows – don’t treat those as mere formalities; use them to align your license counts with reality. A best practice is to keep a running inventory and forecast: at any point, you should know how many licenses are deployed vs. purchased and what your expected needs are for the next quarter and year. This prevents last-minute scrambles and strengthens your hand in negotiations, as you have data to justify changes.
• Incorporate Feedback into the Success Plan: A success plan is not a static document; update it based on what you learn in each review cycle. If certain goals have been achieved (e.g., “80% of users have now adopted the new Adobe CC feature we promoted”), set new goals for the next period (maybe focusing on another feature or another user group). If goals are not met, analyze why and adjust your approach. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the support from Adobe was insufficient – either way, recalibrate. Ensure that key stakeholders, such as department heads and power users, have input into the success plan updates. Their frontline perspective will highlight where more value can be extracted or where inefficiencies exist in tool usage. For example, a video production team lead might say, “We have plenty of Premiere Pro licenses, but our bottleneck is a lack of training in using the new collaboration features.” That could lead to a success plan item to address via an expert session.
• Document and Share Outcomes: Keep a log of the periodic review findings and actions taken. Over a 3-year ETLA, this becomes a powerful record demonstrating how effectively (or not) the organization utilized the software. For the CIO, this is useful for justifying the Adobe investment to the board or CFO by showing concrete improvements, as well as lessons learned and adjustments made. It is also evidence to bring to Adobe when negotiating. If you can show that you actively manage licenses and still need fewer or more going forward, Adobe is more likely to accommodate adjustments. Moreover, this documentation ensures continuity – if personnel changes occur (e.g., a new CSM is assigned or there’s turnover in your IT licensing team), the success journey is recorded and can continue smoothly.

Example: A global bank had an ETLA covering 10,000 Creative Cloud users. Through quarterly usage reviews, the CIO’s team discovered that roughly 1,500 licenses were assigned to users who hadn’t logged in for over 6 months (often due to role changes or departures). They reclaimed those licenses and put them into a ‘free pool’. When new employees in creative roles joined, they drew from this pool instead of purchasing new licenses. By the end of year 2, despite business growth, the bank had avoided buying an additional ~500 licenses by recycling unused ones – saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, their Adobe CSM helped them create a success plan to improve use of Adobe XD in the UX team; usage metrics went up after targeted training sessions. Come renewal, the bank was able to negotiate a smaller increase in license count than Adobe had anticipated (showing data that they optimized usage), and they re-invested some savings into extending their Premium Support for another term.

Escalating and Resolving Critical Support Incidents

Even with proactive management, critical incidents can and will occur, such as an unexpected Creative Cloud service outage, a licensing server glitch that prevents user logins, or a severe bug in Adobe Experience Manager that impacts your public website.

CIOs must ensure that the organization is prepared to escalate and resolve critical issues swiftly, minimizing business disruption. Here’s how to handle these situations:

• Define “Critical” Internally: First, establish an internal definition and protocol for a “P1 – Critical” Adobe issue. For example, if Creative Cloud applications across the company cannot launch due to license verification issues or your marketing automation (Marketo) is down, these would qualify as P1. Ensure that employees know to immediately alert IT through a designated channel when they encounter a severe problem. Time lost in recognizing an incident is time added to the resolution. Have your helpdesk or support teams trained to identify patterns (e.g., multiple tickets about Adobe in a short span) and escalate quickly to the IT operations lead.
• Engage Adobe Support Immediately: For critical issues, speed is paramount. As soon as a P1 incident is detected, your designated support contacts in the Admin Console should log a case with Adobe Support, marked as Priority 1. If you have Premium Support, you likely have a direct phone line to call, which guarantees a 24/7 response. Use it – call in the issue and simultaneously log it in the portal for tracking. If you are on Standard Support, still log the case as P1 through the Admin Console and then use any phone or chat option available to ensure Adobe is aware of the urgency. Provide clear, concise details: who is affected, what the impact is on business, when it started, any troubleshooting done, and that it’s blocking critical operations. This helps Adobe route it to the right engineers quickly.
• Utilize the Escalation Path: Adobe offers an escalation process if you are not satisfied with the response or progress on a case. In practice, if a P1 issue is not resolved or actively worked on within the expected SLA window, escalate it. This can be done via the Admin Console by clicking “Escalate Case” on the support ticket, which flags Adobe management, or by calling the support hotline and requesting to speak with a duty manager. If you have a TAM (Technical Account Manager) or support manager under a premium plan, call them directly as well. They can coordinate an internal Adobe war room and bring in higher-level engineers or even product developers if needed. Essentially, don’t be shy to raise the alarm. In a major incident, Adobe (like any vendor) needs to throw resources at the problem, and sometimes customer pressure helps ensure that happens.
• Involve the CSM and Account Team: Simultaneously with the support case, send a message to your Adobe CSM and/or Account Executive to inform them of the situation. They might not be able to fix the technical issue, but they can internally escalate the issue on the customer side within Adobe. For instance, an account manager might reach out to the head of support or the relevant product team on your behalf. The CSM can also help communicate updates or find workaround information from other clients if it’s a known issue. In large outages, such as a widespread Adobe Cloud service outage, Adobe will often send communications via email or their status page. However, having your reps provide tailored updates is invaluable. They can also assist with post-incident follow-up, such as arranging a root cause analysis report once the situation has settled.
• Use Adobe’s Status and Community Resources: Check the Adobe Status Dashboard when an incident occurs. It could be a known outage affecting multiple customers (in which case Adobe’s engineering is likely already on it). The status page can validate that it’s not just “your environment” and might provide ETA updates. Additionally, the Adobe user community forums or support Twitter accounts can sometimes have real-time info (other admins reporting similar issues). While these shouldn’t replace official support channels, they can give clues and help your team validate the scope of an issue.
• Internal Mitigation While Waiting: For certain incidents, consider internal stop-gap measures. For example, if Adobe Creative Cloud licensing is down (preventing new logins), but existing logged-in users are still fine, communicate to users, “Do not log out of your Adobe apps” until the issue is resolved. Or if an Adobe cloud service is offline, have your team prepared to switch to a backup process if possible (even if it’s manual work). While Adobe works to fix the issue, your business continuity plan should kick in to reduce the impact. Identify these contingency workflows in advance for your critical Adobe-dependent processes.
• Post-Incident Review: Once a critical incident is resolved, conduct a post-mortem both internally and with Adobe. From Adobe, request a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) or incident report if it was a major outage. Many premium support agreements include RCAs for P1 incidents. Evaluate how well the escalation process worked: Did you know who to call? Was the response timely? Were communications clear? Identify any gaps. For example, you might realize you didn’t have after-hours contact info for a key Adobe person – remedy that by getting a contact list as part of your support plan. Or perhaps internally, there was confusion about who had the authority to declare an incident – clarify that in your governance (e.g., “the IT duty manager can declare an Adobe P1 and engage vendor support at any time”). Use each incident as a learning opportunity to refine both Adobe’s support and your handling procedure.
• Leverage SLAs if Needed: If Adobe fell short of their contractual SLAs during a critical issue (e.g., they promised a 30-minute response but took 2 hours, or a cloud service was down beyond uptime guarantees), don’t hesitate to bring this up in subsequent account discussions. Some contracts have penalty clauses or service credits for SLA breaches – if yours does, claim them. Even if not, by documenting the miss, you create leverage at renewal (Adobe may offer a concession or extra support to make up for past issues). The CIO should make it clear that reliable support is an expectation tied to the fees you’re paying.

Example: A large media company experienced a Creative Cloud outage where users worldwide could not verify licenses for several hours, halting design work. The IT team immediately opened a P1 ticket and phoned Adobe’s support line. Despite the high severity, progress was slow initially. The CIO personally contacted Adobe’s account executive and pushed for escalation – soon Adobe’s senior support engineers and product team were on a bridge call with the company’s IT team. Together they identified a licensing server issue on Adobe’s end and Adobe rolled out a fix within 90 minutes. During the outage, the company used an internal communication channel to instruct creatives to work offline or hold off restarting apps. After resolution, Adobe provided a detailed RCA report. The incident led the CIO to insist on quarterly outage drills with Adobe’s TAM to ensure both sides were prepared, and they successfully negotiated a small extension of their Adobe subscription at no cost to compensate for the downtime. This proactive stance improved response for any future incidents.

Internal Governance for Adobe Support & License Management

To effectively manage Adobe products and the support relationship, CIOs should establish strong internal governance structures. This ensures that your organization speaks with a unified voice to Adobe, follows consistent processes, and maximizes the value of the partnership.

Key elements of internal governance include:

• Designated Roles and Responsibilities: Assign who in your organization is responsible for handling Adobe licensing and support matters. Common roles might be:
  • Adobe License Administrator: responsible for managing the Admin Console, provisioning and de-provisioning user licenses, and maintaining an accurate license count.
  • Support Liaison (Support Admin): the point person to open support tickets with Adobe and coordinate internal information gathering for issues. Often, this is an IT service manager or application owner.
  • Customer Success Liaison: This could be the same as the license admin or a separate person (perhaps an IT relationship manager) who meets with the Adobe CSM regularly and drives the success plan actions internally.
  • Executive Sponsor: typically the CIO or a direct report who maintains executive oversight of the Adobe relationship and can step in for high-level escalations or strategic discussions. By defining these roles, everyone knows who is accountable for each aspect (for example, when an issue arises, the Support Liaison knows to log the ticket; when renewal is nearing, the License Admin prepares usage data, etc.).
• Adobe Steering Committee/Governance Board: Consider forming a cross-functional Adobe Steering Committee that meets periodically, such as quarterly. This group can include IT leaders, representatives from major Adobe user groups (such as creative department heads, marketing ops managers, etc.), procurement, and an Adobe CSM (invited from Adobe’s side). In these meetings, review the big picture: license usage reports, support performance, upcoming needs or projects involving Adobe products, and any contract or budget considerations. The benefit of a committee is that it elevates Adobe management from an operational task to a strategic oversight level. It ensures alignment – for instance, if Marketing plans a campaign that requires additional Adobe Analytics capacity, they bring it to the committee well in advance. The committee can also prioritize internal requests (e.g., one department wants a new Adobe product – is it justified? Does it fit the enterprise agreement, or should it wait for renewal?).
• Internal Policies and Processes: Document the processes for interacting with Adobe support and managing licenses. For example:
  • A Support Policy that outlines how employees should report Adobe issues internally, how IT will triage, and when/how to escalate to Adobe. This might include severity definitions, expected response times internally, and who can contact Adobe Support.
  • A License Management Policy covering how new license needs are requested and approved (to prevent over-purchasing). Before requesting a new Adobe license, it is best to check if an existing, unassigned license can be used. Or, a departing employee’s manager must inform IT to reclaim the employee’s Adobe license.
  • A Change Management Process for Adobe product changes – e.g., if Adobe releases a major update or if you plan to enable a new Adobe feature enterprise-wide, coordinate it through change management so support teams are aware.
  • Governance of User Access: Since Adobe enterprise subscriptions often integrate with Single Sign-On and directory groups, they have governance on who gets access to what. Align this with your joiner, mover, and leaver IT processes. For example, ensure HR offboarding checklists include removing the user from Adobe licensing to free up that seat.
• Knowledge Management: Maintain an internal knowledge base or repository for Adobe-related information. This can include how-to guides for common admin tasks (like assigning licenses), solutions to past incidents (for quicker troubleshooting if they recur), and a FAQ for end-users (like “How do I log into Creative Cloud” or “Who to contact if I need Adobe Acrobat Pro license”). By centralizing this information, you reduce dependency on institutional memory and empower support staff to handle issues consistently. Over time, review and update these documents, especially when Adobe makes changes (e.g., if Adobe changes a portal interface or introduces a new admin feature, update your internal docs accordingly).
• Monitoring and Metrics: Implement monitoring for Adobe usage and support tickets on your side. Track metrics such as the number of open Adobe support tickets, the average time to resolution (as observed), the number of licenses assigned versus available, and user satisfaction (perhaps through internal surveys of Adobe users). These metrics, when tracked over time, help gauge if things are improving or deteriorating. For instance, an increasing trend of support tickets might indicate either a problem with the software or a need for more training. A consistently low utilization percentage might signal over-licensing. Monitoring tools or even simple dashboards can make these metrics visible to stakeholders on a regular basis.
• Escalation Matrix: Within your governance, have a clear escalation matrix for Adobe issues. E.g., if a critical issue isn’t resolved in X hours, who in your company will call Adobe senior management? Do you have the contact information of Adobe’s regional support manager or the next level beyond your Technical Account Manager (TAM)? During calm times, ask your Adobe reps for an escalation chart – including names and contact numbers of whom to reach out to if things go wrong. Large enterprises can even request an escalation ladder as part of their support plan, for example: Support Engineer -> Support Lead -> Support Manager -> Head of Support. Internally, map this to your leaders (e.g., Support Liaison -> IT Manager -> IT Director -> CIO). This way, when an escalation is needed, everyone knows the chain of command both internally and at Adobe.
• Governance of Contract and Spend: Keep a close eye on contract terms and renewal dates through your governance structure. Mark your calendar when the ETLA is up for renewal or when notice is required for any changes. Start preparing well in advance (6-12 months prior) by reviewing usage and deciding what to negotiate. This might be handled by procurement under CIO oversight. Many organizations benefit from involving an independent licensing expert or consultant at this stage to benchmark your deal and advise on negotiation (more on that in recommendations). The governance team should approve any true-up purchases or additional spending outside the ETLA (for example, if a team urgently needs 10 more licenses mid-year and it wasn’t budgeted, the request should flow through this governing body for approval).

By instituting these governance elements, the CIO ensures that Adobe’s relationship is managed as systematically as any other major IT vendor.

It reduces risk (license compliance issues, unnoticed waste, unresolved support issues) and positions the enterprise to take full advantage of Adobe’s offerings with minimal friction.

CIO Recommendations

In summary, CIOs overseeing large Adobe ETLAs should proactively manage both support and success to ensure their organization gains maximal value and minimal disruption.

The following are clear, actionable recommendations for CIOs and IT leaders:

1. Integrate Support into the Deal: Don’t treat Adobe support as an afterthought. When negotiating your ETLA, bundle Premium Support (Ultimate Success) into the contract. Leverage your spending to have it included or heavily discounted, and ensure that all support SLAs and deliverables are documented in the agreement.
2. Assess and Choose the Right Support Level: align it with business criticality. If Adobe’s solutions are mission-critical to your operations, opt for Premium Support (with 24×7 coverage and a dedicated TAM/CSM). If not, ensure the Standard Support is sufficient and consider reallocating the budget to user training. Periodically re-evaluate this choice (e.g., if usage of Adobe grows in critical areas, upgrade support accordingly).
3. Establish Regular Business Reviews with Adobe: Schedule quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with your Adobe Customer Success Manager and support team. Use these meetings to review license utilization, discuss support ticket performance, address any service issues, and plan upcoming initiatives. These reviews will enforce accountability and keep Adobe aligned with your evolving needs.
4. Monitor License Utilization and Right-Size Continuously: Implement a rigorous process for tracking Adobe license usage across the enterprise. Conduct internal audits every quarter and reclaim or reassign underused licenses. Right-size your license counts ahead of renewals – reducing or reallocating where usage is low and forecasting increases where needed – to avoid overpaying. Ensure all additions are properly recorded for true-ups, and verify Adobe’s true-up invoices for accuracy.
5. Leverage Your Adobe CSM and TAM: Fully utilize the services of your Customer Success Manager and any Technical Account Manager. Engage them in creating a mutual Success Plan with clear goals (e.g., adoption rates, new feature rollouts, efficiency gains) and hold them to it. Request value-adds like training sessions, workflow optimizations, and industry best practices – these are often part of premium engagements. If you don’t have a named CSM, ask Adobe to provide one due to the size of your account.
6. Strengthen Internal Adobe Governance: Form an internal Adobe governance committee or designate clear ownership for the Adobe relationship. Develop internal policies for support escalation and license management. Ensure every critical Adobe-related process (from onboarding a user to handling an outage) has an owner and a documented procedure. This governance will make your interactions with Adobe more effective and ensure nothing falls through the cracks internally.
7. Plan and Prepare for Incidents: Create and rehearse an Adobe incident response plan. Maintain an up-to-date contact list for Adobe support escalation. Internally, define what constitutes a P1 issue and empower a team to act immediately. After any major incident, conduct a joint post-mortem with Adobe and follow through on improvement actions, either on Adobe’s side or yours. Being prepared can significantly reduce downtime during real crises.
8. Engage Independent Expertise for Complex Negotiations: Don’t go it alone for major renewals or audits. Consider hiring an independent software licensing expert, such as Redress Compliance or a similar firm, to assist with navigating complex Adobe contract negotiations or true-up disputes. These experts bring valuable benchmarking data and negotiation tactics specific to Adobe, which can uncover savings or more favourable terms that you might miss. The cost of their advice often pays for itself in the form of a better deal or avoidance of compliance pitfalls.
9. Focus on Value Realization: Continuously align Adobe’s services with your business outcomes. If certain Adobe products or features aren’t delivering results, escalate this through your CSM and Adobe’s product teams – ask for roadmaps or improvements. Conversely, highlight and build on successes (e.g., a team that creatively uses an Adobe tool to great effect) to replicate that value elsewhere. Regularly update your success plan and keep your stakeholders, as well as Adobe, focused on achieving those targets.
10. Prepare for Renewal Early: Start planning for renewal at least a year in advance. Use data from your periodic reviews to decide what to renew, drop, or add. Check the contract for any notice periods or auto-renewal clauses. Armed with three years of performance and usage insights, approach Adobe with a clear ask for the next ETLA (maybe it’s a price reduction due to lower usage, or inclusion of a new product, or continued premium support at better terms). Early and data-driven negotiation will yield the best results.

By following this playbook, CIOs will turn their Adobe ETLAs from just a licensing contract into a dynamic partnership that continuously delivers value, keeps costs in check, and supports the enterprise’s strategic objectives. Strong support and customer success management are the twin pillars that ensure your Adobe investments truly empower your organization.

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