Sending deals to ACE
How a CRM deal becomes an ACE opportunity, and how Skematic checks every field before AWS sees it.
From deal to ACE opportunity
- Your deal arrives from the CRM. Skematic creates its opportunity automatically.
- Skematic checks it against ACE's rules and lists anything missing or wrong, with where to fix it.
- The gaps are filled: usually the co-sell details your CRM doesn't hold, such as the use case and expected AWS spend. Skematic drafts what it can and proposes it in your Inbox, asks the deal owner what only they know, and you can set any field yourself.
- You review the preview and create it in ACE. ACE stores it, ready to submit.
- You submit it to AWS for review. AWS approves it or asks for changes (Action Required).
- If AWS asks for changes, Skematic proposes them for you to approve (see After it's in ACE), or you make them in Skematic and update ACE; then you submit again.
You can do each step in Skematic, through an AI assistant connected to Skematic (Claude, Amazon Quick), or through Skematic's API. They all use the same checks.
In an AI assistant
Your assistant can do what Skematic's screens do: find a deal and show everything about it, read your CRM or ACE again after you've changed something there, fill and send what's missing, and ask AWS's Partner Central agent why AWS sent an opportunity back. It shows you each change first and makes it only when you say so; anything sent to AWS is sent exactly as you saw it. Connecting AWS or your CRM, API keys and who's in your organization stay in Skematic's settings.
Two ready-made starts are listed in your assistant: Let's get started with Skematic walks you through setup and the ISV Accelerate playbook, and What's waiting for me in Skematic goes through your questions and changes waiting, AWS referrals about to expire, and deals AWS asked you to change.
Where each deal stands
Each opportunity's page shows what Skematic has done for it, step by step: synced from your CRM, checked against ACE, drafted, scored, its customer fit, asked AWS's Partner Central agent (once it's in ACE), questions for the deal owner, Skematic's proposal in your Inbox, sent to ACE, and AWS's review. Each step says whether it's done, running, waiting (on you, AWS or its turn), needs attention, or hasn't come yet, and when; a step waiting in your Inbox links there. The page updates itself while something is running.
Where deals stand, on Home and on the Opportunities page, counts the same for all your open deals: how many are done, waiting or need attention, how many proposals and questions wait for you, and how far AWS's Partner Central agent has got (for example "18 of 40 reviewed · 22 in line · about 11 min": AWS allows Skematic 2 questions a minute).
Three checkpoints
Your CRM is flexible and ACE is strict. Skematic checks your data at three points, so a messy CRM never breaks the sync and nothing invalid reaches AWS.
| Checkpoint | Rule | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Coming in from your CRM or ACE | Never rejected | Skematic keeps what it received and tidies what it can (below). Anything it can't use is flagged where it matters. |
| Values you set in Skematic | Must be valid, but may be incomplete | A use case must be one of ACE's, an amount must be a number. A half-finished opportunity is normal: deals fill in over time. |
| Creating it in ACE | ACE's rules, strictly | If anything fails, nothing is created. Each problem names the field and where to fix it: in Skematic or in your CRM. |
Tidied automatically
- Countries become ISO codes, and US states use ACE's spelling (for example "Dist. of Columbia").
- Phone numbers become the international format (+1…); a number Skematic can't complete is left out.
- Dates are cut to the day, and money keeps its currency.
- A missing website is filled from the company's domain.
Translated through your mappings
Skematic sets up default mappings for HubSpot's standard deal stages, deal types and 148 industries. A value with no mapping (for example a stage in a custom pipeline) is never guessed: it's reported as "not mapped yet", and the deal goes to ACE without it until it's mapped.
You can see and change every mapping in Settings → Integrations → Stage and value mapping: the stages of each of your pipelines, your deal types and industries, with what isn't mapped yet listed first. Owners and managers pick the ACE value for any of them, for your organization only; Reset goes back to Skematic's default. A change applies to your deals straight away (the ACE preview and what's missing), and Skematic drafts again the deals it affects. Your AI assistant can do the same with you, showing you the change before it's made.
Questions for the deal owner
Some fields only the person who owns the deal knows, such as the solution being sold when it isn't one of yours in Partner Central. Rather than guess, Skematic asks: the question appears in the Inbox of the person whose email matches the deal's owner in your CRM, or who chose that deal owner as themselves during setup. If that person isn't in Skematic (or can only view), it goes to your organization's owners and managers.
- Answer it in the Inbox (the opportunity's page counts its questions and links there), or ask your AI assistant to answer it with you. You see what the answer changes before it's saved.
- Your answer fills the field in Skematic, and goes to ACE with the opportunity.
- Each field is asked once. A question that's no longer needed (the field was filled another way, or the deal closed) closes by itself.
What Skematic sends
Beyond the required fields, Skematic sends what you or Skematic set for:
- The customer: its AWS account ID and DUNS number.
- The project: other competitors' names (when the competitor is "Other"), the opportunity a renewal continues, additional comments and the APN programs involved.
- Marketing: the source ("Marketing Activity" or "None"); with a marketing activity, also its campaign, channels, use cases and whether AWS marketing funds paid for it.
- A lost deal: why it was lost, one of ACE's reasons.
- Your team: the deal's owner in your CRM, as the opportunity owner, when the opportunity is created. ACE takes the team only then.
Whether a private offer is planned stays in Skematic: ACE doesn't take it, but Skematic uses it to ask for the customer's AWS account ID.
The preview
Before anything is sent, Skematic shows exactly what AWS would receive for an opportunity, field by field, with every problem and how to fix it. The Opportunities list shows each deal as Ready for ACE, Missing fields (and which), or In ACE.
How strong each deal is
Skematic scores every open opportunity from 0 to 100, whether it's in ACE yet or not: strong (80 and up), fair (50 to 79) or weak (below 50). The score answers one question before AWS sees the deal: would AWS's partner team take it seriously?
| Part | Points | What it looks at |
|---|---|---|
| Complete | 40 | Everything ACE needs is there and valid |
| What AWS reads | 30 | Skematic's review of the business problem, the use case and how your solution fits, the next steps, and why AWS should help |
| Deal signals | 20 | A target close date ahead and within a year, an expected monthly AWS spend, one of your solutions, and a stage past Prospect |
| Customer fit | 10 | How well the customer's company fits your products |
Customer fit. Skematic reads a little about each customer company on your deals (its home page, one more page, and a short web search), then judges how well it fits your products from your confirmed company profile: your products, ideal customers, industries and segments. You see the mark and one line saying why. Each company is read once, and again after 90 days. A deal whose company has no website in your CRM isn't judged.
If a part can't be worked out (the review didn't run, or the customer's company couldn't be judged), the score stands on the other parts.
Each score lists what would raise it most, with about how many points each fix adds. Skematic proposes what it can in your Inbox: the fields it can fill, and stronger wording for the business problem and next steps. Once you approve, the opportunity is scored again. You see the score in the Opportunities list and on each opportunity's page.
Which deals to push first
When Skematic judges a customer company's fit, it also looks for four signals: how sure it is of the fit, whether the company likely runs on AWS, how likely it is to buy through AWS Marketplace, and how likely it has an AWS Private Pricing Agreement (PPA, a multi-year AWS spend commitment). With little evidence it stays cautious: "Unknown" for AWS, "Possible" for a PPA. From the fit and these signals, each customer gets a tier:
| Tier | What it means | Next step (for example) |
|---|---|---|
| T1 Activate & Accelerate | An ideal customer with a strong AWS footprint and a likely PPA | Find the AWS seller for the account and ask for an introduction |
| T2 Build Structured Co-Sell Motion | A strong fit with good AWS signals | Find the AWS seller and schedule an alignment call |
| T3 Qualify & Strengthen AWS Alignment | A good fit, weaker AWS signals | Confirm the customer runs production workloads on AWS |
| T4 Strategic Requalification | A weak fit, strong AWS signals | Run a discovery call before co-selling |
| T5 Low Investment / Monitor | A weak fit and weak AWS signals | Don't start in ACE until a stronger AWS signal appears |
The tier follows from the signals by fixed rules, so the same signals always give the same tier. Each deal not in ACE yet also gets a priority from 0 to 100: mostly its customer's tier (60%), then its score (25%), then how big it is and how soon it closes (15%).
The Opportunities list is sorted by priority, with a Tier column (hover a tier for its next step) and a Tier filter. Each opportunity's page has a Customer card: the tier, the next step, your product that fits the customer best, and why, one line per signal with the pages it came from. Home shows Push next: your top T1 to T3 deals. When Claude or Quick recommends deals to share with AWS, it uses the same priority and leaves out T4 and T5 unless you ask for them.
What Skematic checks
Before an opportunity is created in ACE, Skematic applies ACE's own requirements, plus what we've learned from sending real opportunities. Some examples:
- Required fields: customer name, website, industry and country; project title and business problem; use case, delivery model, sales activities, expected AWS spend, stage, close date, opportunity type, and what you need from AWS.
- Lengths: a title of at most 255 characters; a business problem of 20 to 2,000 characters.
- ACE's exact values: the use case, industry and other lists must match ACE's spelling exactly.
- Formats: US customers need a state and a valid postal code.
- Combinations: national security is set for government customers only; a competitor of "Other" needs its name; a flat renewal names the opportunity it renews; a Closed Lost opportunity needs a reason; a marketing activity says whether AWS funds were used.
These are plain checks with a clear yes or no. Whether the business problem is well written, or the use case the best one, is AWS's judgment, which you see in its review and quality score.
After it's in ACE
Skematic keeps reviewing each open opportunity, using what AWS said about it: AWS's review comments when it asks for changes, and its quality score and recommendations once approved. When the business problem or next steps could be stronger, or the target close date has passed, Skematic writes a better version from your deal and company profile, and proposes it in your Inbox as Strengthen … in ACE.
- You see exactly what ACE would get, field by field, and can edit it first.
- Approving it changes the opportunity in Skematic and updates ACE with only those fields.
- It only proposes what AWS allows at the time: nothing while AWS is reviewing, and after Action Required only the fields AWS lets you fix. You then submit it again yourself.
Skematic also asks AWS's Partner Central agent, once a day, how each of these opportunities could be stronger, and uses its answer in the same review (the proposal then says so). The question changes nothing in ACE. AWS answers two questions a minute per AWS account, so with many opportunities the answers arrive over a few minutes; your AWS connection needs AWS's permission to use the agent: if Skematic shows your AWS connection as needing an update, apply it in your AWS account. Each opportunity's page shows where its question stands (its place in line, or when AWS answered, with the answer).
Skematic learns from your decisions
When you edit what Skematic proposed before approving it, or decline it with a reason, Skematic remembers that for your organization. The next time it writes that field, for any deal, it's shown a few of your recent edits and reasons, so its drafts get closer to how you write. Something you declined for a deal isn't proposed again until the deal changes. Each proposal says how many past decisions it learned from, and Settings → Field mapping shows what was learned for each field.
Safe by design
- No duplicates. Retrying a create, after a timeout for example, never creates a second ACE opportunity.
- No surprises. Each update starts from the opportunity as it is in ACE at that moment, and the preview lists every field it would change, from what to what. If ACE changes while the update is being sent, the update is refused.
- Nothing cleared. An update never empties a field that has a value in ACE.
- Only what AWS allows. While AWS is reviewing, nothing is changed. After Action Required, only the fields AWS lets partners fix are sent. The stage, and a lost reason, change once AWS has approved.