What ACE Is and Why Most Partners Misunderstand It
ACE stands for AWS Customer Engagements. On the surface it looks like a deal registration tool: a place to log opportunities so AWS knows what you are working on. That is how most partners treat it. That is a mistake.
ACE is the primary data source AWS uses to evaluate partners. Your PDM looks at your ACE pipeline before every conversation with you. The AWS funding team looks at it when reviewing MAP and MDF applications. The field reps who decide whether to bring you into a deal look at it when they are assessing whether you are worth co-selling with.
Every data point in ACE, including the quality of your submissions, the velocity of your pipeline, the co-sell acceptance rate, and the win rate, is a signal about what kind of partner you are. Partners who understand this manage ACE differently. Partners who do not treat it like a form they fill out when they remember to.
Your ACE pipeline is your resume with AWS. Every entry tells a story about your co-sell maturity, your pipeline quality, and whether you are a partner worth investing in. Most partners are submitting a blank page.
ACE vs. Your CRM: Understanding the Difference
One of the most persistent misconceptions about ACE is that it is a replacement for or mirror of your internal CRM. It is not. They serve completely different purposes, and conflating them creates problems in both directions.
Your CRM tracks your entire sales pipeline: every opportunity regardless of whether AWS is involved. ACE tracks a specific subset: the opportunities where AWS should be involved in the co-sell motion. Not every deal belongs in ACE. But every deal where there is a legitimate AWS angle, where the customer's stack runs on AWS, where AWS is part of the conversation, where you want AWS field alignment, belongs in ACE and should be submitted promptly.
The practical implication: you need a process for identifying which opportunities get submitted to ACE and when. Left to individual reps, it becomes inconsistent. Some deals get submitted immediately, others never get submitted at all, and the ACE picture AWS sees is a fraction of your actual co-sell activity.
Partners who sync their entire CRM to ACE create noise: irrelevant opportunities that do not have a real AWS angle dilute the signal of the ones that do. ACE quality matters as much as ACE volume. Submit the right opportunities, not all of them.
The Anatomy of a Good ACE Submission
ACE submissions have required fields and optional fields. Most partners fill in the minimum required to save the record and move on. That is leaving signal on the table. Here is what matters and why.
The Co-Sell Mechanism: How ACE Connects You to AWS Field Teams
The co-sell motion in ACE starts with a simple action: requesting co-sell support on an opportunity. When you do this, AWS routes the request to the appropriate field team, typically a PDM, PSM, or account executive depending on the customer and the workload. From there, one of three things happens: the request gets accepted, it gets declined, or it sits unacknowledged.
What most partners do not realize is that the acceptance rate of their co-sell requests is a metric AWS tracks at the partner level. If you are submitting co-sell requests and AWS field reps are consistently declining them, that is a signal: either your opportunities are not qualified, your submissions do not have enough information, or you have not built the relationships that make field reps want to engage.
A healthy co-sell motion looks like this:
- Qualified opportunities: you are only requesting co-sell on deals where AWS involvement genuinely makes sense and where the customer is aware of and open to AWS engagement
- Rich submissions: the opportunity record has enough detail that a field rep can assess it without having to call you first
- Warm PDM relationship: you have briefed your PDM on the opportunity before the co-sell request lands in the system, so they are not seeing it cold
- Follow-through: when a field rep accepts a co-sell request, you respond quickly and come prepared
The partners who get consistent co-sell engagement from AWS are not submitting more requests: they are submitting better ones. Quality beats volume every time in ACE.
Pipeline Hygiene: The Ongoing Work Most Partners Skip
Submitting opportunities to ACE is the easy part. Keeping the pipeline clean over time is where most partners fall apart. A neglected ACE pipeline is worse than a thin one: it tells AWS you cannot manage your own program, which is exactly the opposite of the signal you want to send.
What a Clean Pipeline Looks Like
- Every open opportunity has a close date that is either current or within the next 90 days
- Every opportunity has been updated within the last 30 days: stage, notes, or next step
- Won opportunities are marked as won with actual closed ARR documented
- Lost opportunities are marked as lost with a loss reason (AWS uses this data)
- No opportunities sitting at Stage 1 for more than 60 days without a documented reason
- Co-sell requests have been responded to or followed up on within 5 business days
What a Dirty Pipeline Looks Like
- Opportunities with close dates from 6 to 12 months ago still marked as open
- Dozens of submissions with no updates since they were created
- Win/loss data missing across most closed opportunities
- Co-sell requests that have been accepted by AWS but never followed up on
- Duplicate entries for the same customer or opportunity
We have seen partners go into PDM meetings with 200+ open opportunities in ACE, 80% of which are stale or inaccurate. The PDM knows this. They can see the timestamps. Walking into that meeting trying to advance a funding application or co-sell request is an uphill battle that did not need to happen. Clean pipeline before you ask for anything.
Submission Cadence: Timing Matters More Than You Think
How you submit to ACE, not just what you submit, sends a signal. AWS can see your submission history over time, and the pattern tells a story.
The Wrong Pattern: Batch Submissions
The most common mistake is submitting opportunities in batches: nothing for two months, then 20 submissions in one week. This happens when teams treat ACE as a quarterly compliance exercise rather than an ongoing sales tool. AWS can see this pattern. It looks like gaming the system, not like an active co-sell partner.
The Right Pattern: Steady-State Submission
The partners who get the most from ACE submit consistently: a handful of new opportunities every week or two as they enter the pipeline, updated regularly as they progress, and closed out promptly when they conclude. This creates a pipeline picture that looks like an active, well-managed program, because it is.
| Activity | Recommended Cadence | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| New opportunity submission | Within 48 hours of qualification | Timestamps are visible; early submission signals an active co-sell program |
| Stage updates | Every 2 to 3 weeks minimum | Stale stages signal an unmanaged pipeline regardless of actual deal activity |
| Close date maintenance | Weekly review; update before expiry | Expired close dates are the #1 sign of pipeline neglect |
| Win/loss capture | Within 1 week of close | AWS uses close rate data to evaluate co-sell program quality |
| Co-sell request follow-up | Within 5 business days of acceptance | Slow follow-up damages the relationship with the field rep who accepted |
| Full pipeline audit | Monthly | Catches drift before it compounds; ensures what AWS sees matches reality |
How ACE Connects to Funding Programs
Your ACE pipeline is not just a co-sell tool: it is the foundation of most AWS funding programs. MAP, MDF, POC credits, and other co-investment programs all require a healthy ACE pipeline as a prerequisite. Here is how the connection works in practice.
MAP (Migration Acceleration Program)
Every MAP application requires a corresponding ACE opportunity. The ACE entry needs to document the migration scope, the projected AWS ARR, and the engagement timeline. If the ACE opportunity does not exist or does not have the right information, the MAP application does not go through. We have seen partners lose significant MAP funding because the ACE entry was incomplete or submitted after the application window closed.
MDF (Market Development Funds)
MDF applications are evaluated in the context of your overall partner health, and ACE pipeline is a key component of that health assessment. A strong, active ACE pipeline signals that you are a serious co-sell partner, which is exactly the profile that gets MDF approved. A thin or neglected pipeline raises questions about whether the marketing investment is worth making.
Funding Program Applications Generally
When your PDM sponsors a funding application internally, they are putting their credibility behind you. PDMs sponsor the partners whose ACE pipelines back up the story they are telling. If your pipeline is weak, your PDM has nothing to point to. If it is strong, the conversation is easy.
Think of your ACE pipeline as the collateral for every funding conversation you want to have with AWS. The stronger and cleaner it is, the more leverage you have when you ask for co-investment.
ACE and Tier Advancement
ACE pipeline activity is one of the evaluated dimensions in partner tier advancement from Select to Advanced and from Advanced to Premier. The specific thresholds vary and are subject to change, but the underlying principle is consistent: AWS wants to see that you are actively co-selling before it recognizes you as an Advanced co-sell partner.
What this means practically: if you are working toward Advanced tier and your ACE pipeline is thin, you are making the advancement process harder than it needs to be. Not because ACE volume is the only thing that matters, but because your PDM needs to see evidence of co-sell maturity before they will advocate for your advancement internally. A healthy ACE pipeline is that evidence.
Building the ACE Management Habit: A Practical System
The biggest obstacle to good ACE management is not knowledge: it is process. Most partners know they should be doing this better. What they are missing is a system that makes it happen consistently without requiring heroic effort from someone.
Assign an ACE Owner
Someone needs to own ACE: not as a side responsibility, but as a defined part of their role. This person reviews the pipeline weekly, chases down updates from the sales team, and is accountable for the health of the pipeline that AWS sees. At smaller companies this might be a founder or VP. At larger ones it might be a dedicated alliances person. The point is that it is owned, not shared.
Build ACE Into the Sales Process
Define exactly when opportunities get submitted to ACE. A reasonable trigger: any qualified opportunity where the customer is running on AWS or where AWS involvement would accelerate the deal gets submitted within 48 hours of qualification. Make this part of the opportunity checklist, not an optional step.
Run a Weekly ACE Review
30 minutes every week. Review every open opportunity: are close dates current, has the stage updated, do any opportunities need a co-sell request submitted, are there any accepted co-sell requests that have not been followed up on? This keeps the pipeline from accumulating debt that compounds into a multi-day cleanup project.
Report ACE Metrics to Leadership Monthly
Pull a monthly snapshot: total active opportunities, new submissions in the period, stage distribution, co-sell request acceptance rate, and closed ARR. Review this in your alliances team meeting. When leadership sees ACE data regularly, they understand why it matters and they are more likely to hold the sales team accountable for submitting and updating opportunities.
Brief Your PDM Before You Submit Co-Sell Requests
Never let your PDM see a co-sell request cold. Before you submit a co-sell request on a significant opportunity, send your PDM a one-paragraph brief: customer name, deal size, why AWS is relevant, and what you are hoping the field rep will do. This gives your PDM context, signals that you are organized, and dramatically improves the likelihood that the request gets accepted and acted on.
The Bottom Line
ACE is not a compliance checkbox. It is the most direct line you have to AWS co-sell support, field rep engagement, and funding program access. The partners who get the most from the AWS ecosystem are not the ones with the most certifications or the biggest logos: they are the ones whose ACE pipelines tell a consistent, credible story of active co-sell engagement.
Building that story requires discipline, process, and someone who owns it every week. It is not complicated, but it is consistent work, and most partners are not doing it.
If you want someone to run this for you, ACE pipeline management is one of our core managed services. We maintain the pipeline, brief your PDM, manage co-sell requests, and make sure what AWS sees reflects the program you are running. Reach out if you want to talk through what that looks like for your team.