Vendor management: rationalizing GCP support contracts
An end to costly fragmentation of support tiers (SLA, TAM). Financial modeling and negotiation of a group contract optimizing annual OPEX.
01 Challenges and context
Context and strategic stakes
The organization managed its Google Cloud consumption across multiple, siloed billing accounts. Each entity had subscribed to its own support level (Standard, Enhanced, Premium), some including the costly accompaniment of a Technical Account Manager (TAM) and others not. Following a reframing of Google's support pricing policy, an asymmetry emerged, with some accounts transitioning to the new model while others remained on the old. This led to complete financial opacity, inefficient budget forecasting, and an inability for the Procurement Department to negotiate from a position of strength.
02 Work carried out
Approach and methodology
We first conducted thorough groundwork to inventory all the company's billing accounts. For each account, we identified the active support contract level, associated Service Level Agreements (SLAs), the number of subscribed TAM assistance hours, and the pricing rules (old versus new Google billing model).
03 Outcomes achieved
Results and indicators
150,000 $
Net annual savings
Centralization: Full harmonization of support levels and SLAs across all group billing accounts.
OPEX Gain: Signature of a new optimized contract generating a net saving of 150,000 dollars per year, with strictly equivalent service quality.
Procurement Governance: Establishment of shared expert resources (on-demand TAM), offering traceability and budgetary control to the IT Department.