From fragmented costs to financial clarity: Shiftmove’s path to predictable AWS spend

Additionally:

• Six-figure annualized savings flowing directly into margins
• 80%+ reduction in engineering effort on cost management

*Risk refers to the proportion of commitment downside Shiftmove would bear absent Cloud Capital.

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The challenge

For Shiftmove, unpredictable AWS bills weren’t just an operational nuisance, but a strategic problem. As the company scaled, cloud spend became one of the largest and least predictable costs on the P&L. Finance couldn’t stand behind the numbers with investors or in the boardroom, and margin volatility made it harder to defend forecasts. Meanwhile, engineering was being pulled into finance escalations, spending dozens of hours per month justifying spend instead of focusing on customers.

The complexity of Shiftmove’s environment compounded the problem. Its AWS Organization spanned 36 accounts across multiple business units and subsidiaries. Four of those accounts—Shiftmove, Telematics, Vimcar, and Avrios—drove the majority of spend and represented the greatest challenge. Governance requirements were strict: IAM roles provisioned via Terraform, SCPs applied across the org, and non-negotiable compliance standards. Any solution had to bring predictability without disrupting the workflows that kept the business secure and stable.

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Business impact

The shift to Cloud Capital reframed AWS spend as a governed financial driver. Finance gained visibility and predictability for the first time, with costs aligned to how the business actually operated. Cloud could now be presented in the boardroom with the same confidence as payroll or any other major expense. Shiftmove’s 27.3% savings flowed directly into margins, strengthening operating leverage and improving credibility with investors.

For engineering, the impact was equally significant. Time spent on cost management dropped by more than 80%, freeing teams to focus on product innovation and customer experience. Predictability also reduced tension between finance and engineering, eliminating recurring escalations about why cloud costs didn’t match plan.

Together, these changes converted AWS from a source of volatility into a lever of efficiency and growth. By cutting owned risk from 100% to 34% and increasing commitment coverage from 34% to 75%, Shiftmove gained a structure it could scale with confidence.

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Inside the model

“We didn’t need to re-architect or compromise. Cloud Capital worked with the environment we had, and we gained predictability from day one.” — Wouter Hendricks, CFO Shiftmove

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Cloud Capital integrated directly into Shiftmove’s 36-account AWS Organization, with IAM roles provisioned via Terraform and a dedicated account established to manage Savings Plans and Reserved Instances. No re-tagging, no account moves, no SCP changes, no workload refactors. Read-only cost and usage access plus a scoped purchase role. Governance, security, and compliance remained untouched.

The first step was visibility. Cloud Capital built a finance-ready forecast that segmented spend into production and non-production environments, allocated shared services, and mapped usage across all accounts. AWS Billing Conductor provided finance with a single, auditable view that matched how the business operated.

Execution then followed. Each month, Cloud Capital delivered proposals through Billing Conductor, applying immediate discounts across all accounts. Finance and engineering reviewed, while Cloud Capital executed commitments. By laddering Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, Shiftmove realized a 27.3% savings rate across all new commitments. Cloud Capital underwrote commitment utilization per the commercial agreement, so Shiftmove captured efficiency without financial exposure.

The model continues to scale seamlessly. New accounts inherit coverage automatically, the ladder adjusts with usage growth, and the monthly review cadence keeps finance and engineering aligned.

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