The literal 12-month renewal & upsell playbook — first contract to multi-year sovereign platform.
Owner-gated playbook for the moment the first 90-day pilot closes (estimated Aug-Dec 2026). Maps the 12-month forward path: licence-expansion triggers, DEFONEOS-SEAL upsell motion, cross-sell into adjacent Crown bodies, AUKUS expansion, pricing trajectory, renewal-risk scoring, and named churn-save plays. Written so a Customer Success lead can execute without further engineering input.
12 moTime horizon
5Upsell motions
3.2×Target Year-2 ARR multiplier
7Churn-save plays
1. The renewal clock
The 90-day pilot ends. Three months before expiry (i.e. at Day 0, contractually) the renewal motion starts. The CSM (Customer Success Manager — Nick for first 3 accounts) runs the following 12-month cycle:
Day
Milestone
Owner
Deliverable
Pilot Day 0
Pilot kick-off
CSM
90-day SoW, contract award letter signed
Pilot Day 60
Mid-pilot review
CSM + buyer
Mid-pilot health report + 240-test gate results
Pilot Day 75
Renewal scoping call
CSM
12-month renewal proposal draft
Pilot Day 85
Renewal commercial close
CSM + buyer's procurement
12-month contract signed
Pilot Day 90
Renewal term begins (Year 1)
CSM
Quarterly business review (QBR) cadence starts
Year 1 Q1 (D+90 to D+180)
Adoption deepening
CSM + engineering
3 SEAL issuances; 33-agent council convenes 3 times
Year 1 Q2 (D+180 to D+270)
First cross-sell motion
CSM
Cross-sell into adjacent Crown body or AUKUS partner
Year 1 Q3 (D+270 to D+360)
Multi-year scoping
CSM + finance
3-year MSA scoping; pricing escalation locked
Year 1 Q4 (D+360)
Year 2 renewal commercial close
CSM + buyer's procurement
3-year MSA signed (target)
Year 2 Q1-Q4
Expansion via AUKUS, additional Crown bodies
CSM + partnerships
+2 named accounts (target)
2. Five upsell motions (the catalogue)
2.1 Motion A — DEFONEOS-SEAL upsell
From 1 seal at pilot close to 6+ seals at Year 1 end. Each seal is a £12,000 issuance (audit-grade Ed25519 credential from the 33-agent BFT council). Triggers: each new regulated workflow onboarded; each new compliance framework mapped (JSP 936, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, EU AI Act); each new Crown body or supplier onboarded to the platform.
Pilot close: 1 seal × £12k = £12k
Year 1 Q1: +2 seals (JSP 936 + ISO 42001) = £24k
Year 1 Q2: +1 seal (NIST AI RMF) = £12k
Year 1 Q3: +2 seals (EU AI Act + sectoral) = £24k
Year 1 Q4: +1 seal (AUKUS reciprocity) = £12k
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Year 1 SEAL ARR: £84k
Year 2 (target +50%): £126k
2.2 Motion B — Platform-tier expansion
From pilot-tier (£180k/yr) to enterprise-tier (£420k/yr) on adoption signals: ≥5 SEAL issuances; ≥3 BFT council convenings; ≥100 named users; or the buyer announces the platform as a programme-of-record.
Tier
Annual fee
Users
SEALs/yr included
BFT convenings/yr
Support
Pilot
£180,000
≤25
1
3
Business hours
Standard
£300,000
≤100
3
6
Business hours + named CSM
Enterprise
£420,000
≤500
6
12
24/7 P1 + named CSM + named engineer
Programme-of-record
£600,000+
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Dedicated CSM + engineer + security officer
2.3 Motion C — Adjacent-Crown-body cross-sell
From 1 buyer to 3 buyers within the same department cluster. Once MOD adopts, the natural cross-sell into Home Office, FCDO, DHSC, DEFRA, DESNZ, HMRC (the 6 ministerial departments without existing AI governance programmes). Triggers: any of (i) published award notice, (ii) endorsement at a Crown Commercial Service event, (iii) buyer-side champion moves to a new department (champion migration).
UKDI (regional engagement) → DBT (Dept for Business & Trade)
DASA (innovation) → Innovate UK → UKRI (UK Research & Innovation)
Dstl AI Assurance → AISI (AI Safety Institute) → DSIT (Dept for Science, Innovation & Technology)
MOD Cyber & Resilience → NCSC → Cabinet Office (cyber-as-a-service)
2.4 Motion D — AUKUS expansion
From UK to UK + Australia + US via the AUKUS Pillar II "sovereign AI" track. Triggers: any AUKUS AI working-group endorsement; any named Australian or US champion; any RAAF / US Navy / USMC procurement officer request. Pricing for AUKUS expansion follows the same schedule but denominated in local currency (AUD / USD); payment via FMS (Foreign Military Sales) for US; standing MoU with DSTG (Australia) for AU.
2.5 Motion E — Advisory-day rate conversion
From a pure-licence deal to a hybrid licence-plus-advisory deal. Advisory-day rate is £2,400/day for a named expert (CEO/CTO/CSO). Triggers: any strategic question the buyer's own team cannot answer; any complex integration where supplier know-how is the bottleneck. Target: 12 advisory days/yr at Standard tier, 36 advisory days/yr at Enterprise tier.
Year 1 advisory ARR (target): 12 days × £2,400 = £28,800
Year 2 advisory ARR (target): 24 days × £2,400 = £57,600
Year 3 advisory ARR (target): 48 days × £2,400 = £115,200
3. Pricing trajectory FY27-29
Year
Platform fee
Deployment fee
SEAL per-issuance
Advisory day
Inflation index
FY26-27 (pilot)
£180k
£60k
£12k
£2,400
Frozen for pilot term
FY27-28 (Year 1)
£300k (Standard) / £420k (Enterprise)
£60k base + £30k air-gap
£12k
£2,400
CPI + 2%
FY28-29 (Year 2)
£330k / £462k
£66k / £33k air-gap
£13.2k
£2,640
CPI + 2%
FY29-30 (Year 3)
£363k / £508k
£73k / £36k air-gap
£14.5k
£2,900
CPI + 2%
4. Renewal-risk scoring (8 signals, 0-100)
Run monthly for each customer. Score <40 = green; 40-70 = amber (run churn-save play); >70 = red (escalate to Nick + partnerships).
Signal
Weight
+score
−score
SEAL issuances/quarter
20
+10 per issuance (max 30)
−20 if zero for 2 quarters
Named-user logins/week
15
+5 per 25 active users
−15 if <5 logins/week for 30 days
BFT council convenings/quarter
15
+10 per convening (max 20)
−20 if zero for 2 quarters
Buyer-side champion in role
15
+15 if champion in role
−25 if champion moved
QBR attendance (last 90 days)
10
+10 if attended + engaged
−20 if no-show or delegated
Support tickets P1 (last 90 days)
10
+5 if zero P1s
−15 per P1 unresolved > 24h
Cross-sell or expansion signal
10
+10 if active expansion
−15 if buyer states "freeze" or "review"
Public endorsement (speech, paper, award notice)
5
+5 per public signal
−10 if public criticism
5. Seven churn-save plays
The "named-engineer secondment" — if buyer cites lack of in-house expertise, offer 1 named engineer seconded 2 days/week for the renewal term at no extra cost (CSM absorbs).
The "SEAL pack" — if buyer cites budget pressure, offer 3 free SEAL issuances on renewal signature (CSM cost: £36k of revenue, recoverable in 2 quarters of expansion).
The "champion rescue" — if champion has moved, identify and cultivate their successor within 30 days; offer joint event (roundtable / SIGIL webinar) to introduce.
The "case-study trade" — if buyer cites need for procurement-justification evidence, offer a published case study + a named reference call from a peer Crown body.
The "pilot-extend concession" — if buyer cites "not enough time to evaluate", offer 30-day no-cost extension (CSM absorbs).
The "feature-priority swap" — if buyer cites a missing feature, offer to prioritise that feature in the next quarterly release in exchange for renewal signature.
The "executive escalation" — if buyer cites political/organisational blocker, offer a direct call from Nick to buyer's senior responsible owner (SCS-grade or equivalent).
6. Cross-sell timing (the moment to ask)
Cross-sell is appropriate when any 3 of the following 5 are true:
Buyer has issued ≥3 SEALs in the renewal term.
Buyer has hosted ≥3 BFT council convenings.
Buyer has named ≥3 internal champions (programme, technical, security).
Buyer has published any public-facing artefact citing DEFONEOS (press release, white paper, conference talk).
Buyer has requested any feature on the public roadmap and that feature has shipped.
When 3-of-5 are true, the CSM schedules the "expansion call" — a 30-minute slot with the buyer's senior responsible owner to discuss (a) the natural adjacent Crown body and (b) the AUKUS expansion path. The CSM brings one SEAL evidence pack and one named reference.
7. AUKUS expansion playbook (named steps)
Identify the AUKUS champion on the buyer side (typically a senior civilian in the AI / cyber / data team).
Identify the AUKUS counterpart on the AU side (DSTG, Australia Department of Defence) and the US side (DoD CDAO, US Navy, DARPA).
Issue the AUKUS reciprocity SEAL (a single SEAL that attests compliance with all three jurisdictions' baseline requirements).
Convene a tripartite BFT council session with 11 named agents from each jurisdiction (33 total, mirroring the sovereign BFT pattern).
Publish the AUKUS expansion brief on defoneos.org/aukus/ for procurement officers across all three nations.
Land the first AU/US pilot within 6 months (target: DSTG pilot by Q4 FY27-28, US Navy pilot by Q1 FY28-29).
8. Year-1 → Year-2 → Year-3 expansion model
PILOT YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
Platform fee £180k (1) £300k (Std) £330k (Std) £363k (Std)
Deployment £60k (1) £60k + £30k* £66k + £33k* £73k + £36k*
SEALs £12k (1) £84k (7) £92k (7) £101k (7)
Advisory days £0 £28.8k (12) £57.6k (24) £115.2k (48)
TOTAL single-account £252k £502.8k £578.6k £688.2k
Year-on-year multiplier 2.0x 1.15x 1.19x
If cross-sell hits (3 accounts): £1.5M £1.7M £2.1M
If AUKUS expansion hits (+3 intl): £3.0M £5.0M £8.0M
* air-gap option; otherwise base deployment only.
9. Named-account expansion sequence (FY27-28)
Q1 (Aug-Oct 2026) — Pilot close + Year-1 close for first MOD account.
Q2 (Nov 2026-Jan 2027) — Cross-sell into Home Office (CCT — counter-terrorism).
Q3 (Feb-Apr 2027) — Cross-sell into FCDO (international development programmes).
Q4 (May-Jul 2027) — AUKUS reciprocity SEAL + DSTG (Australia) pilot signed.
Q1 FY28-29 (Aug-Oct 2027) — US Navy pilot signed.
Q2 FY28-29 — NATO SOF pilot signed (UK/NL/AU trilateral).
Q3 FY28-29 — Programme-of-record MSA with first MOD account.
Q4 FY28-29 — Year-2 close across all named accounts; ARR target £3M.
10. QBR (Quarterly Business Review) cadence
Each QBR is 60 minutes, agenda:
5 min — wins since last QBR (SEALs issued, BFT convenings, expansions).
10 min — adoption metrics (users, logins, workflows onboarded).
10 min — support / incident review (P1s, mean time to resolve, customer-sat score).
10 min — roadmap preview (next 2 quarters).
10 min — buyer feedback (what's working, what's not).
10 min — expansion conversation (named adjacent Crown body / AUKUS partner).
5 min — agreed next steps with named owner and date.
Output: a 1-page QBR summary, co-signed by both parties, lodged in the SIGIL chain.
Champion leaves — mitigation: champion-rescue play within 30 days; cultivate successor.
Competitor undercuts on price — mitigation: emphasise sovereign-by-construction + 33-agent BFT + DEFONEOS-SEAL moat; named reference call.
Political shift (change of ministerial team) — mitigation: cultivate SCS-grade (Senior Civil Service) relationships; pitch programme-of-record status that survives ministers.
This playbook assumes the first pilot closes successfully. If the first pilot does not close, this playbook is moot — execute the post-mortem at defoneos-mod-post-pilot-review.html (to be built post-pilot).
The pricing trajectory assumes CPI averages 3% per year; if CPI is higher, prices may need to escalate faster (per the inflation-index clause).
The 3.2× Year-2 ARR multiplier is a target, not a forecast; actual performance depends on cross-sell and AUKUS expansion velocity.
The named-account expansion sequence assumes current UK ministerial structure; a change of government may alter the named targets.
The compensation & incentives table is illustrative; actual CSM compensation is at CSOAI's discretion and may vary.
AUKUS expansion requires AU and US counterparts to reciprocate; Supplier cannot guarantee timing on the partner side.
The renewal-risk scoring weights are calibrated against software-industry norms (e.g. Gainsight, Totango); they have not yet been validated against Crown-body customer behaviour.