Five phases.
One outcome.
Methodology
Five phases. One outcome.
Every AWSNegotiations engagement follows the same disciplined sequence. The phases compress or expand depending on contract size and renewal urgency, but the order does not change. Skipping benchmarking to jump straight to negotiation is the single most common mistake we see customers make on their own.
The Phases
What happens, when.
01Discovery & Spend Forensics (Week 1–2)+
We pull two years of Cost and Usage Reports, current EDP terms, Savings Plans inventory, Reserved Instance portfolio, marketplace passthroughs, and support tier data. We map every line item to negotiable surface area. By the end of Phase 1 you have a single source of truth for what AWS is actually charging you and where the leverage points are.
02Benchmarking & Discount Modeling (Week 2–3)+
Your spend profile is matched against comparable EDPs in our portfolio — same vertical, same scale, same usage mix. We model what discount tier you should be receiving, where your commitment level is sub-optimal, and which architectural decisions are inflating the negotiation baseline. This is where we set the target.
03Strategy Build & Stakeholder Alignment (Week 3–5)+
We build the negotiation strategy document: walk-away terms, opening positions, fallback positions, concession trade matrix, multi-cloud leverage plan, and the timing strategy against AWS fiscal year. Procurement, Cloud Engineering, and Finance align on the playbook before AWS gets a single email.
04Negotiation Execution (Week 5–12)+
We sit shoulder-to-shoulder with your procurement team for every round of communication with AWS account team, deal desk, and pricing committee. We script the calls, draft the response language, escalate when AWS stalls, and pull in competitive leverage at the moment of maximum effect. Every concession is logged. Every redline is reviewed.
05Redlines, Signature & Ongoing Governance (Week 12–14)+
Final redlines on the EDP order form, private pricing addenda, and any side letters. We walk your legal team through what changed, hand off a contract-administration runbook, and set up the quarterly governance cadence so the next renewal starts from a position of strength rather than crisis.
"They walked into a renewal we thought was closed and reopened it. The second round of negotiation saved us another $4.1 million."
Director of Cloud Procurement
Global SaaS, $42M annual AWS spend
Related
Where this applies.
This methodology applies across every EDP negotiation, Savings Plans optimization, Reserved Instance restructuring, and migration credit engagement we run. The phases adapt; the discipline does not. Read the case studies to see Phase-by-Phase outcomes from recent engagements.