Intertek runs a forty four thousand seat Microsoft Enterprise Agreement across testing and inspection sites in one hundred countries. The renewal in 2024 carried a thirty eight percent uplift on the proposal. The buyer side response held the cost line and recovered six thousand seats of shelfware.
Intertek is a global testing, inspection, and certification company headquartered in London. The Microsoft estate runs forty four thousand seats across one hundred countries and ten thousand laboratory devices.
The 2024 EA renewal proposal carried a thirty eight percent uplift. The buyer side counter restored the price line, recovered six thousand seats of shelfware, and removed the Power BI and Visio bundle uplift on the renewal.
Read this article alongside the Microsoft knowledge hub, the Microsoft advisory practice, the Microsoft EA Renewal Playbook, the Microsoft 365 licensing reference, and the Vendor Shield subscription.
The Intertek EA started in 2018 at thirty eight thousand seats. The 2021 mid term true up added six thousand seats from the Allium and PSI acquisitions. The 2024 renewal proposal landed in February, eight months before term end.
Run a license utilization audit before the formal kickoff. Pull the Microsoft 365 admin center telemetry. Cross check against the EA price file. Identify every duplicate and every shelfware line. Document the findings inside the negotiation kickoff brief.
The shelfware audit ran for six weeks. The audit pulled inactive user data from the Microsoft 365 admin center, the Azure Active Directory, and the SAP HR feed. The reconciliation identified six thousand inactive seats across fifteen entities.
| Category | Seat count | Source | Recovery action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office 365 E3 inactive | 3,200 | Acquired entities, HR leavers | True Down at renewal |
| Office 365 E5 underused | 1,800 | Power BI non users on E5 | Downgrade to E3 plus add ons |
| F3 frontline overprovisioned | 600 | Field staff with no device | Remove from EA |
| Visio Plan 2 unused | 400 | Standard knowledge worker assigned | Remove from EA |
The Microsoft EA True Up clause runs annually but does not allow True Down inside the term. The shelfware recovery happens at the renewal anniversary. The buyer side fix is to plan the True Down inside the renewal proposal, not at a mid term anniversary.
The Intertek renewal ran five commercial levers in parallel. Each lever targeted a specific cost line. Each lever was filed in writing inside the formal proposal.
Microsoft account teams argue True Down is not standard inside an EA renewal. The clause is contractual when filed inside the renewal proposal with a specific cap. Intertek filed a fifteen percent True Down right at year one and year two of the new term.
The clause sits on the renewal order document, not the master agreement. The buyer side fix is to draft the clause language before the proposal lands. Independent advisory provides the standard clause language built from prior engagements.
The eight month timeline ran from the February proposal to the November signature. Two formal proposals were exchanged. Six executive checkpoints aligned the CIO, the CFO, the head of procurement, and the chief legal counsel.
| Month | Step | Microsoft action | Intertek action |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | First proposal | Thirty eight percent uplift, E5 mandatory | Decline, request rework |
| March | Internal audit | Quiet | Shelfware audit, telemetry review |
| May | Counter proposal | Receive Intertek counter | File True Down, mix optimization, carve out |
| July | Second Microsoft proposal | Fifteen percent uplift | Decline, request third |
| September | Executive escalation | Worldwide account team engaged | CFO to Microsoft area VP |
| October | Third proposal | One percent uplift, levers in | Final review, redline |
| November | Signature | Closure | Filed under three year term |
The Microsoft renewal does not move at the account executive level. The renewal moves at the area vice president level. The CFO to area VP escalation in September unlocked the third proposal. Every prior counter was filed as preparation for that escalation.
The final renewal closed at a one percent uplift across the three year term. The cumulative saving against the original proposal ran twenty two million dollars across the term. The shelfware recovery ran an additional four million dollars.
The seven step checklist below is the buyer side starting position to run a Microsoft EA renewal at scale.
Microsoft renewal proposals in 2024 carried high opening positions across the enterprise base. The drivers include the M365 E5 push, the Copilot for Microsoft 365 attach, the price increase on Online Services, and the MACC reset. The opening proposal is not the closing price. The buyer side fix is to treat the opening as a negotiation anchor.
True Down is not standard inside an EA renewal. The clause is negotiable when filed inside the renewal proposal with a specific cap and trigger. The Intertek True Down clause carries a fifteen percent year one and year two cap. The clause sits on the order document. Independent advisory provides the standard clause language.
Power BI Premium per user inside E5 prices at an effective rate of around ten dollars per user per month. The standalone Power BI Premium SKU prices similarly. The carve out moves the cost from E5 to a separate motion.
The savings come from removing the E5 attach where Power BI adoption is below thirty percent. The Intertek carve out covered seven thousand five hundred users.
The Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment is a three or five year prepaid Azure spend cap. The MACC unlocks volume discounting and aligned billing with the EA. The MACC resets at the EA renewal because the term aligns. The buyer side fix is to size the new MACC against the projected Azure consumption, not the historical commitment.
The renewal price is locked at the EA execution date for the term. The Online Services price protection clause extends the lock to specific SKUs across the term. The Intertek renewal extended the protection to year three for all in scope SKUs. The protection clause sits on the order document. Independent advisory provides the protection language.
Redress runs Microsoft EA renewals inside Vendor Shield, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. The work covers the shelfware audit, the M365 mix optimization, the Power BI and Power Platform carve out, the MACC reset, the True Down clause, the price protection extension, and the area VP escalation. Always buyer side, never Microsoft paid.
Redress runs Microsoft renewals inside the Vendor Shield subscription, the Renewal Program, the Benchmark Program, and the Software Spend Assessment. Every engagement is led by a former Microsoft EA negotiator on the buyer side.
Read the related benchmarking, about us, locations, and contact pages.
A buyer side reference on Microsoft EA renewal levers, including the shelfware audit, the M365 mix, the Power BI and Power Platform carve out, the MACC reset, and the price protection extension. Built from hundreds of Microsoft engagements.
Independent. Buyer side. Written for CIOs, CFOs, and procurement leaders carrying Microsoft EA estates. No Microsoft influence. No sales kickback.
Open the white paper in your browser. Corporate email only.
Open the Paper →The Microsoft renewal does not move at the account executive level. The renewal moves at the area vice president level. The CFO to area VP escalation in September unlocked the third proposal. Every prior counter was filed as preparation for that escalation.
We have run 500+ enterprise clients across 11 publishers. Every engagement starts with one conversation.
EA renewal levers, shelfware audit playbooks, M365 mix optimization, Power BI carve out math, MACC reset analytics, and the area VP escalation pattern across every Microsoft engagement we run.
Once a month. Audit patterns, renewal benchmarks, vendor commercial signals across Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Salesforce, IBM, Broadcom, AWS, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Workday, Cisco, and the GenAI vendors. No follow up sales pressure.
Free providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) cannot subscribe. Work email only. Unsubscribe in one click.
