Microsoft Azure Negotiation
The client is a leading global manufacturer in the automotive and industrial sectors, renowned for its innovative solutions and high-quality products. As a key player in its industry, the client has established a global IT infrastructure to support its extensive operations. Central to this infrastructure is their Azure environment, provided through a global contract with Microsoft.
This contract is approaching its renewal date. The company recognizes the importance of this renewal, not only to maintain operational continuity but also to ensure that their IT strategy remains aligned with their long-term goals for innovation, efficiency, and scalability. Renewing this Azure contract presents an opportunity to review and potentially optimize their cloud services, ensuring they continue to support the company’s evolving needs in a competitive and fast-changing market.
The Challenge.
In this case study, we explore the challenge of renegotiating an Azure commitment/contract with an uncertain outlook. The organization faces the difficult task of securing a more favorable outcome without committing to any additional projects beyond the current run-rate. While future projects are anticipated, the uncertainty surrounding them complicates the negotiation process. The primary challenge lies in achieving better terms without increasing the existing commitment.
The Solution.
To tackle the challenge of renegotiating our Azure commitment with Microsoft, we turned to the 2Data Microsoft Contract Negotiation Service. With their deep expertise and market insights, 2Data helped us craft a strategic negotiation plan.
We leveraged the market insights to our advantage. This set a strong precedent: if Microsoft expected a platform commitment from us, they needed to give a lower pricing including free support. Our position was further strengthened by the investigation and our multi-cloud strategy. This introduced a serious benchmark for Microsoft, heightening the stakes of the negotiation. We didn’t stop there—we also brought a real price benchmark example to the table, making our case even more compelling.
Utilizing benchmarking data from 2Data was crucial. It provided us with clear targets, showing us what we could realistically aim for and what constituted a good deal. Armed with this data, we didn’t just negotiate discounts. We expanded our demands to include hard and soft savings.
The Outcome.
In the end, our approach, supported by 2Data’s insights, enabled us to secure a significantly better deal from Microsoft without making additional commitments beyond our current run-rate. With the support we were able to achieve an additional saving of 10 % on top of the already negotiated terms&conditions with very limited commitment but none over the current baseline.
Client Testimonial
“I was really impressed by the commitment to success and the detailed market insights brought in by the 2data consultants and I can highly recommend 2Data as a trusted advisor“
Schaeffler, Hans-Werner Forkel
