Licensing optimization
Pay for what your company actually uses
We review your Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure subscriptions, compare what is under contract with actual usage and with the features each role needs, and deliver a prioritized adjustment plan: what to consolidate, what to move to a different plan, what to release and what is worth keeping even if it is little used today.
When this service applies
- Nobody has reviewed licensing since it was purchased
- The subscription renews itself year after year while headcount, roles and the operation have changed completely.
- You pay for licenses of people who have left
- New accounts are set up quickly because someone needs them; removals are not, because nobody asks for them. The bill only grows in one direction.
- Everyone has the same plan
- Plant staff, who only need email and a form, have the same plan as the finance leadership. Or the reverse: people who need advanced capabilities work on a plan that does not include them.
- Azure consumption keeps rising and nobody can explain why
- There are resources running with no use, test environments nobody shut down and sizing inherited from a migration. The bill arrives with no owner assigned.
- Renewal is coming and you want to negotiate with data
- Renewal is approaching and you need to arrive with a real usage inventory in hand, not with the vendor’s proposal as the only starting point.
Expected outcome
Licensing aligned with real usage and sustainable over time
You get full visibility of what you have under contract, what is actually used and the gap between the two, broken down by department and by role. The adjustment plan states what to release, what to reassign, what to move to a different plan and what is worth keeping, with the functional effect of each decision made explicit. And a periodic review procedure is put in place so the gap does not open up again.
Scope and deliverables
- Complete inventory of subscriptions and licenses under contract across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure, with their renewal dates.
- Analysis of actual usage per license and per user, compared with what is under contract.
- Needs map by role: which features each type of position in your company really requires.
- Detection of unassigned licenses, licenses assigned to inactive accounts, duplicates and oversized plans.
- Review of Azure consumption: unused resources, idle environments, sizing and opportunities for commitment-based pricing or benefits from existing licenses.
- Prioritized adjustment plan, with the functional effect and the risk of each change stated.
- Recommendation on the purchasing structure and the renewal calendar.
- Review of compliance with the usage terms of the contracted products.
- Governance procedure: onboarding, offboarding, reassignment and periodic review with defined owners.
- Executive report with the recommended decisions and the order in which to execute them.
Work stages
Inventory
We capture everything under contract across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure, including add-ons and subscriptions purchased by departments outside IT, which are usually the ones nobody has on the radar.
Actual usage analysis
We compare what is under contract with actual usage from the platform’s own reports: last activity per user, capabilities used and Azure resources actually consumed.
Needs by role
We define with you what each type of position needs. A little-used license is not always surplus: it may be an adoption problem. That distinction is key to avoid cutting where the problem lies elsewhere.
Adjustment plan
We rank the actions by impact and risk: release, reassign, change plan, consolidate or keep. Each recommendation states what the company loses and what it gains if it is executed.
Supported execution
If requested, we support the execution of the changes on the corresponding renewal dates, verifying that no user loses a capability they need to do their job.
Governance and periodic review
We put in place the onboarding, offboarding and reassignment procedure, with owners and a periodic review, so the gap between what is contracted and what is used does not grow unchecked again.
Responsibilities
Your company
- Provide read access to the Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure admin portals.
- Share the current contracts, agreements and renewal dates, including those managed by other departments.
- Provide the org chart and role descriptions for the needs map.
- Confirm which accounts belong to active staff, to services or to third parties.
- Decide on and approve licensing changes and execute them with the corresponding vendor.
- Appoint the owner of the onboarding, offboarding and periodic review procedure.
BETABOX
- Build the complete subscription inventory and analyze actual usage.
- Build the needs map by role together with the business departments.
- Identify and quantify the gaps between what is contracted and what is used.
- Deliver the prioritized adjustment plan, stating the functional effect and the risk of each change.
- Flag when a little-used license indicates an adoption problem rather than over-purchasing.
- Support the execution of the changes when requested and verify that nobody loses needed capabilities.
- Put in place the governance procedure and the periodic review.
What is included
What is included
- Subscription inventory and actual usage analysis.
- Needs map by role.
- Review of Azure consumption and resource sizing.
- Prioritized adjustment plan with functional effect and risk stated.
- Review of compliance with the usage terms of the contracted products.
- Governance procedure for onboarding, offboarding and periodic review.
- Executive report of recommendations.
What is not included
- Purchase, renewal or cancellation of licenses: executed by your company with the corresponding vendor.
- Contract negotiation on your behalf with Microsoft or with a distributor.
- Formal licensing audits with legal standing before the manufacturer.
- Tax, accounting or legal advice on subscription contracts.
- Licensing of third-party products outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Implementation of underused capabilities: covered by the adoption and change management service.
- Technical architecture optimization on Azure beyond sizing: handled as a migration or modernization project.
Success criteria
- A decrease in the gap between contracted licenses and licenses actually in use, measured against the initial inventory.
- No license assigned to accounts of former staff or to inactive accounts, verifiable in the periodic review.
- Every type of position operates on the plan that matches its functions, according to the approved needs map.
- A decrease in consumption of Azure resources identified as idle or oversized, measured against the prior period.
- Renewals are executed on a reviewed inventory and not by automatic continuation.
- The onboarding and offboarding procedure is applied with an assigned owner and no pending exceptions.
- No user loses a capability needed for their job as a result of the adjustments.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
- How much can we save?
- It depends entirely on your starting point: how many licenses are unassigned, how much staff turnover went unmanaged, how well plans are matched to each role and how much Azure consumption corresponds to idle resources. We do not publish savings percentages because any general figure would be a promise without basis. Once the inventory and usage analysis are done, the plan states the expected effect of each action on your own bill.
- Does optimizing mean cutting licenses?
- Not always. In some cases the adjustment means upgrading the plan for people who need capabilities they do not have today, and who are getting by with external tools or manual work. Optimizing means aligning what is contracted with what each role needs: sometimes that reduces cost and sometimes it redistributes it to get more value from the same budget.
- How do you know what is used and what is not?
- From the admin reports of the Microsoft platforms themselves: last activity per user, capabilities actually used, assigned and unassigned licenses, and Azure resource consumption. We do not install monitoring software on staff computers or review the content of anyone’s work: the analysis is based on aggregated service usage data.
- If a license is little used, should it be removed?
- Not necessarily, and this is the most important distinction of the service. A little-used capability may indicate over-purchasing or an adoption problem. If the capability is valuable and nobody knows about it, removing it fixes the bill and worsens the underlying problem. That is why the report separates the two cases and, where appropriate, refers to adoption work instead of recommending a cut.
- Do you sell us the licenses?
- The review is delivered as an analysis service, and the purchase or renewal is executed by your company with the vendor of its choice. The report states what is worth adjusting and why, with the functional effect of each change made explicit, so you can negotiate or decide with your own data. We do not publish license prices: quotes always respond to a specific scope.
- How often should licensing be reviewed?
- At a minimum before each renewal, and additionally whenever a relevant change occurs: a significant hiring wave or staff reduction, the opening of a site, a cloud migration or the implementation of a new system. Between reviews, what sustains the result is the onboarding and offboarding procedure with an assigned owner; without it, the gap opens up again within a few months.
Do you know how many licenses you are paying for without using?
Request a review of your licensing. We build the inventory, compare it with actual usage and deliver a prioritized adjustment plan, with the effect of each decision stated before it is executed.
Contact
Request a complimentary assessment
Tell us what your company needs and a BETABOX advisor will get in touch to schedule a call at your convenience. The initial assessment is 100% free of charge.
- +1 (754) 209-2071
- Bookings
- Book directly on the calendar