$0.56M
3-year savings opportunity
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CLIENT SUCCESS STORY · MICROSOFT 365 & SERVER LICENSE ASSESSMENT
$1.02M Uncovered: $0.56M in Savings + $0.46M in Compliance Risk, in One Assessment
How Rizen's Microsoft Software Asset Management (SAM) assessment gave a large enterprise full visibility into its Microsoft 365 and on-premise server estate — and a costed roadmap to act on it.
$1.02M
Combined Savings & Compliance Risk Identified
Surfaced in a single Microsoft license assessment spanning 175 servers, 14 products, and 6,000+ licensed users.
$0.46M
Non-compliance risk exposure
SUPPORTING DETAIL
175
Servers analysed
14
Microsoft products reviewed
1,000+
Surplus licenses identified
~49%
Potential cut to annual licensing spend
Client Snapshot: A large enterprise in the telecommunications infrastructure sector, running Microsoft 365 (E3, F3, EMS), Defender, Power BI, Teams Rooms) for 6,000+ licensed users, plus an on-premise Windows Server, SQL Server, and Exchange estate across 175 servers — licensed under a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA).
The Challenge
The client's Microsoft footprint had grown organically over years of expansion — thousands of Microsoft 365 seats provisioned across a diverse workforce, from office staff to frontline field engineers, alongside a large on-premise server estate supporting core operations. No formal software asset management process was in place to track any of it.
Leadership had limited visibility into actual usage versus contracted entitlement, no structured way to catch licensing drift between Enterprise Agreement renewals, and no defensible position if Microsoft came asking. Without a clear Effective License Position, both overspend and compliance exposure were accumulating unseen.
Our Approach
Full Cloud & On-Premise Assessment
Rizen ran a comprehensive Microsoft SAM assessment across M365 cloud programs and on-premise server software, spanning 175 servers and 14 products — combining data from the M365 Admin Portal, Intune exports, and on-premise inventory scans through Rizen's proprietary assessment framework.
A Costed Roadmap, Not Just a Report
The engagement produced a defensible Effective License Position for every product in scope, four prioritized cost-optimization strategies, and a fully costed 3-year savings and risk exposure model — backed by a remediation roadmap with recommendations prioritized by financial impact, assigned an owner, and mapped to a clear timeline.
The Results
$1.02M in combined savings and compliance risk identified — $0.56M in 3-year savings opportunities plus $0.46M in license non-compliance exposure, surfaced from a single assessment engagement.
54 unlicensed SQL Server cores identified across the on-premise estate — $0.46M in exposure at list price — with an immediate remediation plan.
34 non-compliant Office installs on servers and 17 non-compliant Visio licenses identified and flagged for urgent removal or upgrade.
Six of eleven Microsoft 365 products flagged for utilization review, with three in the critical band (under 50% utilized) representing over 1,000 unused licenses.
Every recommendation prioritized by financial impact and urgency, with an owner and a 0–30-day, 30–60-day, or next-renewal timeline attached.
The $0.56M Savings Breakdown
| Initiative | Strategy | 3-Year Saving |
|---|---|---|
| M365 E3 Right-Sizing | Move 446 web/mobile-only users to a lower-cost SKU | $0.22M |
| M365 F3 Reduction | Right-size 506 frontline-worker licenses to actual usage | $0.09M |
| Power BI & Teams Rooms Clean-Up | Eliminate 51 unused licenses | $0.03M |
| Server Agreement Restructuring | Move 7 server products from EA to SCE | ~$0.21M |
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