Achieving Comprehensive Visibility into AWS Marketplace Purchases Across Your Organization

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Managing software assets across numerous Amazon Web Services (AWS) accounts presents challenges for large organizations utilizing AWS Organizations. IT administrators in enterprises require improved methods to monitor and control software purchases from independent software vendors (ISVs) across their accounts.

Organizations encounter difficulties with manual software asset tracking, often relying on spreadsheets that may result in inadequate visibility, ineffective cost management, missed renewal deadlines, and lost negotiation opportunities. The AWS Marketplace Procurement insights dashboard provides a centralized and cost-free solution for managing software purchases across multiple accounts.

This post introduces the AWS Marketplace Procurement insights dashboard, which offers organization-wide visibility into AWS Marketplace purchases. Discover how this tool enhances transparency and control, facilitating strategic decision-making for your AWS Marketplace procurement.

Solution Overview

The AWS Marketplace Procurement insights dashboard centralizes the visibility and management of AWS Marketplace purchases across your organization. It consolidates all ISV software agreements, invoiced amounts, renewals, and expirations into a single location.

You can access the dashboard via the AWS Marketplace console or integrate it into your tools using an API. Key features include:

• Centralized Visibility: Access all AWS Marketplace software subscriptions and agreements in one location, including AWS account IDs for purchases, offer IDs, offer types, agreement IDs, and agreement start and end dates.
• Cost Analysis: Review AWS Marketplace spending data, including invoiced amounts over specific periods, to assist with financial planning and budget management.
• Audit and Compliance: Monitor when terms are accepted, along with timestamps, account details, and agreement history. This tracking establishes a reliable audit trail of your AWS Marketplace spending to help maintain compliance with organizational policies and industry regulations.

Setting Up the Dashboard

The dashboard aggregates data from various AWS sources to present an organization-wide perspective. Prior to utilizing it, you must complete the following steps. Only management account users or delegated administrators can access this dashboard. For details on registering and deregistering delegated administrators, refer to this resource.

1. Enable all features in AWS Organizations. For instructions, refer to the guide on enabling all features for an organization with AWS Organizations.
2. Add the following permissions to your IAM policies to view and use the dashboard:
   • aws-marketplace:GetBuyerDashboard
   • organizations:DescribeOrganization
3. Include these permissions in your IAM policies to enable the dashboard:
   • iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole
   • organizations:EnableAWSServiceAccess
   • organizations:DisableAWSServiceAccess
   • organizations:DescribeOrganization
   • organizations:ListAWSServiceAccessForOrganization
   • organizations:ListDelegatedAdministrators (needed to manage delegated admins)
   • organizations:DeregisterDelegatedAdministrator (needed to manage delegated admins)
4. Enable AWS Marketplace procurement insights settings in the AWS Marketplace console Settings. This step creates a service-linked role and allows trusted access, enabling AWS Marketplace to access necessary information from AWS Organizations. For more information, refer to this authority.

Data within the Procurement insights dashboard is sourced and validated from multiple data sources. As a result, new AWS Marketplace purchases may take over 24 hours to be reflected in the dashboard.

Features and How-to Guide

To access the dashboard, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the AWS Marketplace console. You must have management account owner or delegated administrator permissions to access the dashboard.
2. In the Management account or a registered Delegated administrator account, select Procurement insights as illustrated in the accompanying screenshot. If you haven’t activated the dashboard yet, refer to the instructions for enabling the Procurement insights dashboard.
3. The AWS Marketplace Procurement insights dashboard consists of two primary sections:
   • Cost Analysis Tab: View spending data related to your organization’s AWS Marketplace purchases.
   • Agreements Tab: Monitor active and expired AWS Marketplace agreements throughout your organization. (Expired agreements can only be tracked from the time this feature was enabled.)

The Cost analysis section allows you to filter your data by invoice date, pay-as-you-go options, and offer types. The Total charges section presents the cumulative amount your organization has spent on AWS Marketplace agreements, encompassing both active and past agreements.

For analysis outside of AWS Marketplace or for use with other tools, you can download the data. To export the data, use the filters at the top of the page, then click the additional options icon in the top-right corner of the table and select your export option.

The Agreements tab provides an overview of all agreements, including both active and expired ones. You can filter these agreements by end date, pay-as-you-go options, and offer types. The Active agreements section will display the total number of current agreements in your organization.

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