Find the Right Microsoft Licensing Partner to Maximize Your Investment Through Consolidation
Finding a Microsoft licensing partner to help you centralize and simplify your license processes can reduce stress on you and your team.
As your business expands and adapts to the rapid pace of change, you'll use more Microsoft business technologies. Sometimes, this means purchasing more licenses. Microsoft licensing often appears complicated or confusing, leaving you concerned about cost optimization and mitigating potential risks.
This blog is your guide, designed to help you through the complexities of Microsoft licensing and provide actionable steps and invaluable tips to bring your licensing under control.
How to Find the Right Microsoft Licensing Partner
Ensuring your license costs are optimized, maintaining license compliance, staying up to date with the dynamic nature of licensing, and managing periodic price increases can be overwhelming.
A partner well-versed in licensing can add significant value to your organization. This can lead to substantial productivity enhancements for your IT team, simplified processes, cost reductions, and better budget alignment.
When seeking a licensing partner, there are several key attributes to consider:
- Dedicated licensing resources: A partner should have a dedicated team specifically for licensing.
- Licensing expertise: The partner should possess deep licensing knowledge and be capable of answering complex questions.
- Complimentary assessment: A great partner will offer an assessment to get your licensing on track. This assessment can provide valuable insights into your current licensing situation and suggest areas for improvement.
- Long-Term partnership aspirations: Look for a partner interested in a long-term relationship. This demonstrates their commitment to understanding your organization's evolving needs and adjusting their support accordingly.
Compliance Risk and Cost-Saving Options: How a Microsoft Licensing Partner Can Help You
Conducting a licensing assessment is instrumental in identifying underutilized licenses. It can help you uncover available promotions, determine exposure to risk from compliance, and pinpoint opportunities for right-sizing.
Without deep knowledge, your organization could potentially be overpaying or not adhering to Microsoft’s compliance requirements in these areas:
- Exchange Online: To access a shared mailbox, a user must have an Exchange Online license. However, the shared mailbox doesn’t require a separate license if the mailbox is less than 50 GB, which can lead to cost savings.
- Microsoft 365: Adopting a role-based approach to your licensing strategy can be highly beneficial. For example, your front-line workers could be eligible for discounted F1 and F3 licenses. On the other hand, departments with higher security risks, such as accounting, might require Microsoft 365 E5 licenses for enhanced security.
- Microsoft 365: Provisioning a single license may have impacts on a tenant for all users, which can make your whole tenant non-compliant if all users are not licensed appropriately
- Dynamics 365 Business Central: By participating in the Bridge to Cloud 2 Promotion, your organization can save 40% on licenses, and your organization may qualify for additional licenses at no extra cost during the promotional period.
- Dynamics 365: Some Dynamics 365 licenses come with usage rights, potentially eliminating the need to purchase additional Power Apps licenses.
- SQL Server: When running SQL Server in a physical environment, licenses must be assigned to all of the physical cores on the server. A minimum of four core licenses per physical processor are required, with licenses sold in packs of two.
- Microsoft Azure: You can save up to 80% on resources with Azure Reserved Instances and the Azure Hybrid Benefit
- Dynamics 365 Customer Insights licenses: If your organization requires Dynamics 365 Customer Insights licenses and you have fewer than 10 full users, it may be more cost-effective to increase your base license quantity and acquire the attached license of the Customer Insights.
These scenarios are just a glimpse into the hidden intricacies of Microsoft licensing. A knowledgeable partner can help uncover these and provide guidance personalized to your organization's needs.
Consolidate Your Licenses to Maximize Efficiency
Once you're satisfied with the assessment recommendations, it's time to turn the cost savings and compliance advice into tangible results. The licensing consolidation process is the next step towards streamlining your licensing. Bringing all licensing under one umbrella and collaborating with a trusted partner will give you a more organized and efficient system. Your partner now has a holistic view of all your licensing and can further guide you in streamlining your licensing journey.
Here are the advantages of consolidation:
- Simplified billing: By consolidating your Microsoft invoices, you'll receive a single bill. This is convenient and simplifies your operations and makes it easier to access licensing information.
- Streamlined operations: Centralized provisioning and easier administration give you a single point of contact for all your needs.
- Improved planning and budgeting: Align your subscription expiration dates enhances planning and budgeting for renewals. This makes your renewals predictable and cyclical.
Stoneridge Software: Your Microsoft Licensing Partner
After consolidating your licensing, a holistic view of your organization's licenses is more apparent, allowing for the most impactful ongoing advice for your Microsoft licensing.
Partnering and consolidating with Stoneridge extends beyond the initial consolidation, and we are committed to delivering ongoing value. We are always ready to assist if you have a licensing question or need to discuss a potential scenario.
Contact Stoneridge Software to schedule a time to talk with our licensing expert. We can help ensure you have the right licenses for your organization and help you integrate your solutions to become more efficient and productive.
Under the terms of this license, you are authorized to share and redistribute the content across various mediums, subject to adherence to the specified conditions: you must provide proper attribution to Stoneridge as the original creator in a manner that does not imply their endorsement of your use, the material is to be utilized solely for non-commercial purposes, and alterations, modifications, or derivative works based on the original material are strictly prohibited.
Responsibility rests with the licensee to ensure that their use of the material does not violate any other rights.