Smarsh Accelerates Financial Services Sales with Streamlined Procurement in AWS Marketplace

Smarsh, a leader in electronic communications archiving and compliance solutions, wanted to simplify procurement for financial services institutions (FSIs), as technology providers in this industry face long sales cycles and complex procurement processes. Smarsh, an AWS Partner, leads with AWS Marketplace to simplify purchasing, accelerate deal approvals, and strengthen collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This approach has shortened sales cycles by weeks, reduced procurement friction, and positioned Smarsh for expansion beyond financial services into new industries.

Compliance is critical for financial institutions swimming in a sea of regulations. With massive amounts of communication data—emails, texts, calls, and more—flowing through their organizations daily, financial services companies must capture, archive, and monitor everything to meet strict regulatory requirements. Smarsh provides the technology to make this possible. Built on AWS and able to handle the scale and complexity of global financial institutions, Smarsh delivers enterprise-grade solutions for communications capture, archiving, surveillance, and e-discovery. “The only way that we can meet the strict data residency, security, and privacy requirements of multinational financial institutions is through our platform powered by AWS,” said Tom Magoffin, vice president of enterprise sales at Smarsh. “AWS provides us with the scale and robust security that our customers require while also offering the elasticity to handle fluctuations in demand.” Plus, automation and AI-powered analytics help uncover trends, identify potential risks, and optimize decision-making.

Helping these institutions manage risk and meet regulatory requirements is both a responsibility and an opportunity. But selling into this highly regulated industry comes with challenges. Large financial firms have strict procurement frameworks, which means long approval cycles, purchase order requirements, and multiple decision-makers across compliance, IT, and procurement teams. These procurement teams are also consolidating vendors, making it even more critical for Smarsh to differentiate itself in a competitive market. Smarsh has long had a close partnership with AWS as both a technology provider and a strategic go-to-market ally. While co-selling with AWS helped drive credibility and access to key decision-makers, lengthy timelines required tight alignment between Smarsh and AWS teams. Beyond sales, revenue recognition and cash flow management added another layer of complexity, as traditional invoicing cycles introduced delays. To scale their AWS business more efficiently, Smarsh needed a way to simplify procurement, shorten sales cycles, and create a frictionless experience for its customers.

Smarsh adopted AWS Marketplace as a strategic sales channel to improve deal efficiency, strengthen alignment with AWS sales and leadership teams, and ultimately help grow their business. AWS Marketplace is a curated digital storefront helping companies of all sizes find, try, buy, deploy, and manage third-party solutions. By listing its compliance and archiving solutions in AWS Marketplace, Smarsh provides financial institutions with a flexible procurement, billing, and delivery experience to accelerate innovation in the cloud. The company also uses AWS Marketplace Private Offers to customize pricing and contract terms for enterprise customers. This helps customers with a more direct way to transact, speeding up the time it takes to get a transaction done.

The flexible payment scheduler in AWS Marketplace allows Smarsh to create custom installment plans, structuring multi-year invoices to reduce manual billing tasks and providing greater predictability for revenue operations. In addition, AWS Marketplace continues to introduce new capabilities such as expanded purchase order functionality and procurement system integration. “AWS has introduced new features that make it even easier for customers to purchase in AWS Marketplace,” said Tom Lynch, business development director at Smarsh. “For example, customers can now add purchase order numbers directly to transactions and connect their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, simplifying internal chargebacks and cost allocation across teams. These enhancements are part of why AWS Marketplace has become our only actively prioritized and positioned non-direct sales channel within our enterprise customer base.”

Deep collaboration with AWS was essential to maximizing AWS Marketplace’s impact. "We align early and often with AWS teams to ensure smooth co-sell motions and joint sales strategies," said Lynch. "This allows us to proactively engage the right stakeholders, streamline procurement conversations, and position AWS Marketplace as a natural purchasing path for customers." To strengthen this collaboration, Smarsh works through the AWS co-sell program to coordinate joint engagements with customers. This approach helps the Smarsh sales team align more effectively with AWS and identify the right opportunities.

With AWS Marketplace, Smarsh achieved significant revenue growth, faster sales cycles, and stronger customer retention. The company’s AWS Marketplace revenue has grown significantly, fueled by larger enterprise transactions, multi-year contracts, and an increasing number of deals. Customers who initially purchased in AWS Marketplace were more likely to expand their engagement, leading to higher renewal rates and additional service adoption. “We’ve seen that customers who purchase in AWS Marketplace are 40% more likely to come back and buy additional products,” said Lynch. “And they’re 30% more likely to sign multi-year agreements, which gives us more predictability in how we grow the business.” Beyond revenue growth, AWS Marketplace cut procurement timelines by eliminating purchase order requirements. In many cases, Smarsh can now close deals weeks sooner than with traditional procurement processes. “It’s not just about making the sale easier,” added Magoffin. “We receive payments 20% faster in AWS Marketplace, which has a big impact on how we manage cash flow and plan ahead.” Automated invoicing and streamlined approvals also helped accelerate deal velocity and improve cash flow for procurement teams.

AWS Marketplace helped Smarsh scale efficiently across its core market and beyond. Financial institutions looking to reduce vendor complexity and optimize costs select Smarsh in AWS Marketplace, making AWS Marketplace not just a procurement tool but also a competitive differentiator. “Listing in AWS Marketplace positions us to meet customers exactly where and how they want to buy,” said Magoffin. While financial services remain Smarsh’s primary market, AWS Marketplace also helped the company expand into diverse industries, including the public sector and healthcare. By listing cybersecurity and mobile compliance solutions as standalone offerings, Smarsh could reach new customer segments without the need for additional sales infrastructure. With a more predictable, scalable, and frictionless sales process, Smarsh strengthened its AWS partnership and cemented its positive reputation in compliance technology. "By fully integrating AWS Marketplace into our sales and procurement strategy, we removed key barriers to purchasing, strengthened our AWS partnership, and reinforced our leadership in cloud-based compliance solutions," said Lynch.

Smarsh empowers financial institutions to capture, archive, and monitor communications data to meet strict regulatory requirements. Built on AWS, its enterprise-grade solutions support compliance, risk management, and e-discovery at a global scale. With AI-powered analytics and automation, Smarsh helps organizations reduce risk, improve efficiency, and unlock insights from their data.