Many businesses have purchased Microsoft 365 directly from Microsoft or another IT partner, but they often end up with inaccurate, confusing licensing resulting in unnecessary complexity and increased costs.
There are many sources that can create confusion and drive up costs, including inefficient employee onboarding and offboarding procedures, abandoned licenses to support short-term projects, and lack of proper financial and IT oversight.
Companies regularly add licenses to meet the needs of business units, which becomes difficult to track over time and often misses out on key bundling, enhanced features, and cost consolidations that Microsoft provides within certain license families.
Beyond cost controls, another common area of improvement is in reviewing the licenses that should be assigned based on the employee's role or department. We commonly find that employees are missing key licenses that the business assumes they have, which can be detrimental to productivity and efficiency.
A recent study of 5 million Microsoft Office 365 users reveals how companies can significantly reduce license expenses:
Conducting a one-time review often isn't enough. Without a normal cadence of reviews and proper management, license sprawl can creep back in and start to drive up costs and complexity again.
That's why we suggest conducting regular reviews of your company's Microsoft 365 licensing to eliminate waste and maximize savings.
Many mid-market and enterprise companies are making the move from Microsoft's Enterprise Agreements to the Microsoft Cloud Service Provider (CSP) licensing model.
The CSP program provides flexible, subscription-based licensing for modern cloud solutions such as Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics, along with SQL, Windows Server and Windows 10 licensing without the long-term commitments and over provisioning typical of legacy programs.
CSP licensing also provides greater business agility and minimizes financial impact as companies respond to rapidly changing market conditions.
As companies move away from EA and volume licensing, assessing current usage and upcoming licensing needs while choosing the proper CSP licensing is key to a successful transition.
Get started today by reserving a quick online meeting with one of our certified Microsoft experts.
