IT procurement consulting. The first offer is never the price.

Why do enterprises overpay for software?

Enterprises overpay because pricing is opaque and asymmetric. The vendor's deal desk sees thousands of transactions; the buyer sees its own. List prices anchor high, discounts feel generous, and the reference points all belong to the seller.

Public price pages, such as AWS pricing or Salesforce pricing, are the start of the curve, not the end. Enterprise discounts move on volume, term, timing, and credible alternatives.

How should an enterprise software deal be phased?

Leverage is a function of phase. The buyer who keeps two vendors alive until commercial close pays a different price than the buyer who announces the winner first.

What do independent benchmarks change?

Benchmarks convert negotiation from opinion to arithmetic. Knowing the discount band for your deal size and category removes the vendor's strongest card: your uncertainty.

Where benchmark data comes from

Our benchmarks come from the advisory engagement file across 500+ enterprise clients, refreshed by live deals. Category coverage spans the major publishers and 500+ tier 2 vendors via the benchmark program.

List anchors are public: Oracle's price lists and Microsoft's EA program page set the ceiling. Benchmarks set the floor.

Using the number

The benchmark is a target band, not a script. It sets the counter, sizes the walk away, and tells you when a deal is done. Deals close faster with it, not slower.

Which contract terms matter more than price?

Five terms decide the lifetime cost of the deal: renewal increase caps, true down rights, audit clause scope, benchmark or MFN style protections, and exit assistance. Price without these terms is a one year number on a three year contract.

The renewal cap

An uncapped renewal converts every discount into vendor financing. Cap increases at a low single digit or CPI linked figure, in writing, at signature.

Where the common advice on IT procurement is wrong

The common advice is to run a heavyweight RFP for every major purchase. We disagree. In roughly 7 of 10 renewals Morten Andersen benchmarked in 2024 to 2025, the RFP was theater: the incumbent's switching costs decided the outcome before the document was written, and vendors price RFP theater accordingly. The buyer side move is to invest in benchmark data and credible alternatives for the few deals where competition is real, and to negotiate the rest on terms and timing. A credible alternative beats a thick RFP.

The vendor has seen a thousand deals like yours. The only question is whether anyone on your side has.

What to do next

1. Inventory every deal and renewal closing in the next 12 months.
2. Score each with the negotiation scorecard.
3. Commission independent benchmarks for the top five by value.
4. Keep alternatives credible until commercial close. No early signals.
5. Negotiate the five structural terms with the price, never after it.
6. Put every closed deal's terms into the renewal calendar for T minus 12 review.