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Practice VI

Audit defence &
benchmarking.

Software audit defence and live market price intelligence that keeps every figure you are quoted honest.

What is audit defence & benchmarking negotiation?

Audit defence is the management of a software publisher's audit — scoping, data validation, and settlement — to limit exposure; benchmarking is the live price intelligence that keeps every quote honest.

Why it matters: Audits are a sales motion as much as a compliance one. Managed well, exposure shrinks; managed badly, it becomes an unplanned, over-scoped purchase.

What we negotiate

Audit scope, methodology, and data requests from Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, and others.

Effective-license-position validation, remediation options, and settlement terms.

Ongoing benchmarking of price and terms across your vendor estate.

How Accord helps

We take the publisher's findings apart, validate the underlying data, and convert an audit from a penalty into a negotiated purchase on your terms.

Between events, our benchmarks keep every renewal and new quote anchored to the real market.

FAQ

Common questions

What should we do first when an audit arrives?

Control scope and data flow before conceding anything. The first 72 hours set the exposure; we manage them with you.

Can an audit finding be negotiated?

Almost always. Findings are an opening position; validated data and remediation options usually reduce exposure materially.

What is benchmarking worth?

It anchors every quote to the real market — typically the difference between paying list-adjacent and paying the achievable price.

Related reading
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