After more than a year of discussions, this Fortune 50 company and Cisco had aligned on the high-level structure of a five-year Whole Portfolio Agreement. What remained was the hard part: turning that framework into workable contract documents that fully captured what the client was buying, limited the risk of cost creep, and gave the client a clear view of the commercial and operational obligations tied to a highly customized deal.

TC2 and LB3 were engaged to lead the development and negotiation of the custom agreement package on an expedited timeline. The scope of the Whole Portfolio Agreement was broad, covering software entitlements, software maintenance, cloud and SaaS services, security services and tooling, hardware discounts, hardware maintenance entitlements, and a dedicated support team. That breadth made it essential to define the commercial and service scope carefully so the client had a complete and practical agreement rather than a high-level framework with unresolved gaps.

Working closely with the client, TC2 and LB3 led the negotiation of the primary Cisco contract documents with a focus on three priorities: making sure the contracted services and software were comprehensively documented, minimizing the risk of incremental charges over the life of the agreement, and helping the client understand and manage the legal and commercial risks embedded in a long-term custom arrangement.

The engagement also extended beyond Cisco itself. TC2 and LB3 led negotiation of the related reseller paperwork and the associated financing arrangements so the full commercial structure was aligned and executable across the entire transaction.