[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.