[mox1]

Just to let you know this kind of pricing information is available and given out during F500 SaaS deals.

Our microsoft reseller was using pricing and contract info on a deal he closed last week to assure us he would and could get us a similar deal.

Gartner will literally cutthtoat re-negotiate any large contract you have, using pricing data they have gathered from their members.

Call them up tomorrow, tell them your current cost for Splunk, they will tell you exactly how much you can save.

So this type of thing is not illegal and not even frowned upon for the big players.

[jpgvm]

Once you are big enough to have a procurement department this isn't just not frowned upon it's expected and very much "part of the game".

I personally hate it but it's just how the game is played and it's why all enterprise software has stupidly high advertised prices so they can give "90% discounts" and let people think that is a good deal when it is ultimately just the real price that all the big players are getting anyway.

[pcl]

When I worked at BEA (which I think published its prices), the steep discounts on a crazy high price actually had a clever reason — evidently the sales team could discount the list price pretty freely, but they were forbidden to discount the yearly support and maintenance fees. Sorta subscription pricing before it was cool.

[fraserharris]

Support & maintenance have radically lower margins than software licenses. Without discounting rules, sales can craft deals that lose the company money.

[vasco]

My practical experience with vendor negotiations is you ask for a discount and talk to them honestly and make the sales person have a good time with you and you don't need to play hardball, say you have some secret information or other crap. I have seen many contracts negotiated by a regular engineering manager and by "proper" procurement people, and the outcome is clear that hardball negotiations end up in worse outcomes than just being a nice person and speaking plainly.

[matt-p]

There's a difference between 'a company negotiates on behalf of a number of clients and individuals happen to get a feeling for ballpark figures' verses publishing the exact figures of every deal on the internet.