Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Engage Delta’s services are designed to complement procurement, sourcing, and legal functions — not replace them.
The aim is to work alongside internal teams and stakeholders to enhance commercial outcomes, strengthen negotiation strategy, and provide focused support during high-stakes supplier engagements — acting as an independent, specialist resource where internal capacity or objectivity may be limited.
Even experienced teams can benefit from external expertise — especially when time, internal constraints, or supplier pressure limit preparation.
Research shows that 70% of negotiation success comes from planning — identifying leverage, shaping commercial narratives, and aligning terms to business outcomes.
Engage Delta brings a focused, independent perspective to support and strengthen your internal efforts, helping to reduce costs, mitigate risk, improve terms, and capture additional value.
Where discussions become sensitive or stalled, the objective is to provide discreet commercial mediation — facilitating resolution, preserving relationships, and avoiding escalation that could jeopardise future outcomes.
End-to-end oversight is often the most effective approach, as negotiations typically begin much earlier than many realise — often during the initial sales conversations.
At that point, suppliers are already qualifying the opportunity, shaping perceptions, and price-conditioning buyers in line with their internal sales targets and CRM forecasts.
Without commercial guidance at that stage, buyers may unintentionally share sensitive information or set expectations that weaken their negotiating position later in the process.
That said, value can still be delivered at any stage.
Whether full lifecycle support or targeted input mid-process is required, engagement is always flexible — including behind-the-scenes planning or direct vendor interaction, depending on the complexity and sensitivity of the engagement.
While best practice is to engage early — ideally spending 70% of time on preparation — support can still be highly effective even once negotiations are underway.
If external expertise is brought in mid-process, the first step is to review the negotiation history, assess what’s been communicated, and identify remaining leverage.
Depending on the situation, it may be possible to reframe the discussion, reset expectations, or tactically adjust positioning without undermining credibility.
In many cases, a fresh perspective and strategic reset at the right moment can help unlock stalled conversations and lead to significantly improved outcomes.
Engagements are tailored to fit the client’s internal capacity, sensitivity of the negotiation, and level of external visibility required.
Support can range from behind-the-scenes planning and coaching, to direct supplier engagement or neutral facilitation. The aim is to enhance internal capability without duplicating or disrupting existing functions.
Yes. Engage Delta’s services are well-suited to public sector and Government environments where procurement processes, budget accountability e.g. best value, and transparency are critical.
With direct experience managing Government accounts at Oracle Corporation and Canon, I’ve led and negotiated multi-million-dollar contracts across central and local Government, healthcare, education including Universities, departmental agencies, and also NGOs.
Renewals offer a valuable opportunity to reassess value. Market conditions may have shifted, better alternatives may exist, and your supplier may be underperforming or delivering less than originally promised.
The balance of power may now favour you, especially if key relationships or assumptions behind the original agreement have changed. A structured plan helps you identify leverage, avoid complacency, and optimise outcomes — not just accept legacy terms by default.
Ideally, planning should begin as early as possible — especially for strategic or complex agreements.
Delaying negotiations can limit your options, lock you into legacy terms, or cause you to miss leverage points tied to performance, pricing, or market shifts.
For high-impact contracts like ERP platforms or infrastructure services, a 12–18 month runway is often needed to properly assess alternatives, align internal stakeholders, and renegotiate with confidence.
For less complex renewals, 2–3 months is often sufficient. However, the exact timeline depends on factors such as the degree of vendor lock-in, switching costs, and the availability of alternative suppliers to establish a credible BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement).
Renegotiating an active contract is more challenging, particularly without a natural review or break clause.
However, if there is evidence of underperformance, breach of key obligations, or failure to deliver on material representations that the agreement relied upon, renegotiation can be a viable and constructive option.
In such cases, a commercial reset may be warranted to protect value, manage risk, and avoid further deterioration in the relationship or performance.
Engage Delta combines deep Enterprise sales expertise with independent negotiation insight. Having worked inside global vendors, the same methodologies your suppliers use (e.g., MEDDIC/MEDDPICC) are applied against buyers — extracting information early and running down the clock to lock in unfavourable terms.
This insider perspective helps surface risks such as inflated pricing, vendor lock-in, restrictive rights, and value leakage hidden in contract narratives. By anticipating these tactics, negotiations remain commercially grounded, leverage is maintained, and agreements are aligned to fair outcomes that protect long-term business value.
Absolutely. Every engagement follows a structured, strategic process — incorporating proven frameworks, negotiation styles, and planning techniques tailored to your specific objectives, risk profile, and Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA).
Once the fundamentals are established, a tailored negotiation framework is developed to guide the process.
This includes aligning internal stakeholders around the strategy and ensuring clarity on key outcomes before entering formal discussions with the other party.
Value is measured by outcomes — including cost savings, stronger contractual terms, reduced risk exposure, and recovery of value leakage. In many cases, impact can be quantified based on pricing improvements, renegotiated terms, or future cost avoidance over the contract lifecycle.
Where possible, value contribution is tied to measurable commercial outcomes.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Software License Audit & SaaS / Cloud Compliance
Independent audit and compliance support is critical whenever a vendor launches a license review, SaaS entitlement audit, or cloud consumption check. Vendors often apply aggressive interpretations of contract terms, leading to unexpected findings and inflated claims.
Specialist support helps:
Validate or challenge vendor assertions.
Manage audit communications strategically.
Apply negotiation frameworks and playbooks to counter tactics, mitigate risk, and reduce potential penalties or true-up costs.
A back channel — often discreet and off-record — is effective when executives wish to avoid direct confrontation, explore alternative terms, or maintain plausible deniability while preserving relationships.
This approach aims to offer discretion to unlock better outcomes without damaging long-term partnerships.
Mediation is recommended when internal efforts are exhausted and negotiations reach a standstill, bringing in a neutral perspective to reframe discussions, resolve impasses, and prevent escalation into arbitration, litigation, or a no-deal outcome.
· Mediation is voluntary and non-binding, where a neutral facilitator helps both sides reach a mutual agreement. It’s fast, confidential, and helps preserve business relationships.
· Arbitration is binding and more formal. It’s typically faster than litigation, but can still be costly, offers limited discovery, and provides little room for appeal.
· Litigation is the most formal and public route — often slow, expensive, and adversarial.
Engage Delta supports early-stage commercial mediation and back-channel negotiation to help resolve disputes before they escalate into formal proceedings.
No. All services are delivered with complete independence, ensuring unbiased guidance and vendor-neutral support in every engagement.
Engage Delta accepts no commissions, incentives, margins, or partner program benefits from vendors, resellers, or ISVs — eliminating conflicts of interest and keeping your organisation’s priorities front and centre.
In the rare case of a neutral mediation, any fee arrangements would be openly discussed and transparently agreed with both parties to avoid conflicts of interest.
