The situation
The retailer was three months from a Creative Cloud renewal on an agreement that had grown unchecked across two prior cycles. Seats had been added for projects, campaigns, and seasonal teams and never reclaimed. Procurement had no central view of who was actually using the software, so the default plan was to renew the existing count and absorb the uplift.
What Adobe wanted
Adobe wanted to roll the full entitlement forward at the existing seat count and apply an annual uplift on top. The renewal was framed as a routine continuation, with the inflated count treated as the baseline and no examination of how many of those seats were dormant.
What we did
We reconciled the entire Creative Cloud entitlement against last sign in and active usage data across every team. The review surfaced roughly 1,400 seats assigned to leavers, finished projects, seasonal staff, and duplicate accounts, plus a block of all apps licenses held by people who only ever opened a single application.
We rebuilt the renewal as a buyer side proposal, with the seat count reset to verified active demand, the product mix corrected, and the uplift capped. With the dormant seats removed before Adobe set the baseline, the renewal date worked as the retailer's leverage rather than Adobe's.
The verified outcome
The retailer renewed on a right sized estate with roughly 1,400 fewer seats than Adobe first proposed, a corrected product mix, and a capped uplift for the new term. The reduction was verified against the prior entitlement and active usage data before signing.
