The EA renewal runs against an eighteen-month buyer cadence anchored to the publisher fiscal year. Six months of preparation, six months of negotiation, six months of execution. The Admodum read on the milestones and the artefacts at each one.
The publisher fiscal year runs 1 July to 30 June. The four quarter-ends are 30 September, 31 December, 31 March and 30 June. Q4 (April to June) is the publisher's principal commercial-pressure window: account teams carry annual quota; June is the year-end signing window; targets that have not been hit by 31 March accelerate in Q4.
The buyer-side renewal-cadence design takes the publisher calendar as a constraint. A renewal term-ending in the publisher's Q4 sits inside the strongest commercial-pressure window; a renewal term-ending in Q1 (July to September) sits in the weakest. The renewal-date design is a multi-year posture: the buyer can choose, at any renewal signing, where the next renewal will land.
The wider editorial sits in the Microsoft pillar; the EA framework context sits at the Enterprise Agreement overview; the publisher fiscal year context sits at the Microsoft fiscal year spoke (forthcoming).
Month eighteen is the start of the buyer-side cycle. The renewal is eighteen months out; the term-end date is published; the publisher's account team has not yet engaged formally on the renewal (the publisher cycle typically opens twelve months out from the buyer's side).
The month-eighteen milestones are governance and team. The internal renewal-programme governance is established: the steering committee (finance, IT, procurement, business sponsor), the working group (the SAM team, the licensing manager, the procurement lead), the external advisory team (the independent advisor, the legal counsel), the cadence (monthly steering, fortnightly working).
The team agrees, at month eighteen, the buyer's commercial position in outline: which products are critical, which are rationalisable, which are exit candidates; which programmes (Azure MACC, Copilot, Defender, the M365 E-tier) are in active growth, in steady state, or in retraction; which enrolments persist on the EA and which transition to the MCA-E. The position is provisional; it is reviewed at each subsequent milestone.
Month twelve is the entitlement-and-deployment baseline. The buyer's SAM team produces the audit-grade inventory: every product on every enrolment, every user count, every device count, every Azure-commitment-eligible service. The inventory is reconciled against the deployment reality: the M365 seats actually assigned, the SQL Server cores actually in production, the Azure consumption against the MACC.
The baseline carries three artefacts. The entitlement map (every product, every enrolment, every count) is the cumulative-contract artefact. The deployment map (every product, every actual deployment) is the SAM artefact. The delta (entitlement minus deployment, per line) is the renewal-time negotiating artefact.
The wider SAM context sits at the SAM audit anatomy spoke (forthcoming); the Azure commitment context sits at the Azure MACC white paper; the M365 plans context sits at the Microsoft 365 plans spoke (forthcoming).
Month six is the commercial-position milestone. The publisher's renewal proposal has now arrived (the publisher account team has typically opened the renewal conversation between months twelve and nine). The buyer's position is finalised in light of the proposal.
The milestones at month six are: the True-Up reconciliation for the final EA year is forecast and modelled (the True-Up bills in arrears at the term-locked price level); the Azure commitment design for the next term is modelled (quantum, tenor, ramp shape, eligible services); the SA-versus-MCA-E decision is taken (which enrolments transition, which persist); the price-level read is finalised (which products are at A, B, C, D today; which products move at renewal); the BATNA position is established (which products have a credible alternative).
The wider BATNA read sits at the Microsoft BATNA spoke (forthcoming); the MCA-E transition decision sits at the MCA-E versus EA spoke (forthcoming); the account-team posture sits at the Microsoft account team spoke (forthcoming).
Month three is term-sheet time. The buyer and publisher exchange term sheets covering the principal commercial points: price levels, discount levels, term length, Azure commitment design, M365 mix, SA election, exit terms. The term sheet is not a contract; it is the framework for the contract that follows. Material commercial issues are resolved at the term-sheet stage; commercial issues left unresolved at term sheet typically remain unresolved through to signature.
Month zero is the signature window. The contract papers are negotiated, redlined and exchanged. The Microsoft Business and Services Agreement (where unchanged) is signed (or affirmed if pre-existing); the renewal enrolments are signed; the order documents are executed. The signing date itself often falls within the publisher's last commercial-pressure window before the term-end (the publisher's Q4 if the renewal term-end is 30 June; the publisher's quarter-end immediately preceding the term-end on other anniversaries).
The wider engagement-models read sits at the Fixed Fee, Contingency and Annual Retainer pages; the renewal-programme read sits at the Renewal Programme.
The buyer-side artefacts to hold across the eighteen-month cycle are: the cumulative-contract map (every enrolment, every product, every count, every price-level history), the entitlement-versus-deployment delta (per product, per legal entity), the Azure-commitment read (consumption against commitment, eligible-service catalogue read, Marketplace pull-through), the SA-versus-MCA-E decision artefact (per enrolment), the price-level read (per product, against the level scale), the BATNA read (per product, against the credible alternative), and the renewal-date design (where the next renewal lands in the publisher fiscal year).
The renewal-time conversation is then a negotiation against artefacts, not against the publisher's headline narrative. The publisher proposes a renewal envelope; the buyer reads it against the artefacts; specific line-level moves (drop, rationalise, expand, retain, transition to MCA-E) are decided on their own arithmetic.
The wider engagement sits in the Microsoft practice; the aggregated reading list sits in the Microsoft knowledge hub; active renewal moments route to the Renewal Programme; active audit moments route to Audit Defence.
The annual reconciliation that frames the final-year True-Up at renewal.
A senior Admodum Microsoft advisor will read your EA term-end, entitlement map and renewal proposal against the eighteen-month cycle on a private call. Active renewal moments route to the Renewal Programme.