In questo articolo approfondiamo come le aziende possano migliorare l’efficienza e la governance di Microsoft 365 ottimizzando le licenze già in uso: un approccio che libera risorse, evita sprechi e permette di valorizzare al meglio gli investimenti già fatti.
Microsoft 365 è oggi l’applicazione SaaS più diffusa al mondo: abilita modelli di lavoro flessibili e ibridi ed è diventata per molte aziende un vero must have. Proprio per questo rappresenta una delle voci di spesa più rilevanti nei budget IT.
Già nel 2022 Microsoft aveva introdotto un primo aumento dei prezzi, con rincari compresi tra il 9% e il 25% a seconda dei piani. Un adeguamento che l’azienda ha giustificato come “increased value”, legato a un decennio di innovazioni in tre aree chiave – comunicazione e collaborazione, sicurezza e compliance, AI e automazione – a cui si sono aggiunte nuove funzionalità di audio-conferenza. Gli aumenti hanno colpito soprattutto la fascia bassa (ad esempio il piano base è passato da 5 a 6 dollari, +20%), mentre sui bundle più completi l’impatto percentuale è stato inferiore (da 32 a 36 dollari, +12,5%). Un chiaro segnale della strategia Microsoft: spingere le aziende verso i pacchetti più ricchi e costosi, dove l’aumento pesa meno in proporzione.
Un’ulteriore modifica scatterà dal 1° aprile 2025: i piani annuali e triennali con pagamento mensile subiranno un incremento del 5%. L’aumento, valido su tutti i canali di acquisto (Buy Online, CSP e MCA-E), interesserà prodotti come Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 e Power Platform. In pratica, chi ha scelto di pagare mese per mese un contratto annuale o pluriennale si troverà a spendere circa il 5% in più rispetto alla fatturazione anticipata.
Per molte organizzazioni questo significa dover mettere in conto un’ulteriore crescita dei costi ricorrenti. Tuttavia, non sempre è necessario tagliare servizi o rinunciare a funzionalità per far fronte a questi rincari.
Secondo Gartner, circa il 30% della spesa software resta inutilizzato: in altre parole, quasi un terzo dei costi potrebbe essere recuperato semplicemente ottimizzando ciò che si paga già oggi.
Un dato ancora puntuale ce lo dà il “Global Office 365 Report: licenze optimization”: oltre la metà delle licenze Microsoft 365 costa alle aziende più del necessario. I motivi sono diversi:
Ottimizzare questi aspetti significa liberare risorse che possono compensare gli aumenti previsti senza ridurre il perimetro dei servizi, ma anzi migliorando efficienza, governance e trasparenza della spesa.
At WEGG, we have a long history of Spend Optimization on the software licensing assets of large corporations, based on an in-depth understanding of the contractual, commercial and compliance logic of the major vendors.
There are actions that companies can take to protect their IT spend and be more aware of renewals. To remind you, we even have a nice acronym: URRÀ (it could be just the italian exclamation to use when faced with a protected budget!).
Let's look them in detail:
understand the real use of M365
The first step in finding out whether we are incurring unnecessary costs is to know what we have in the corporate ecosystem and how we are using it. To do this, we need to relate data on three fundamental elements:
This information can be retrieved natively within the Microsoft365 administration center (sometimes even directly from the applications, see PowerBI usage data).
Typically companies export the individual items into reports, then aggregate them into Excel spreadsheets. They then perform calculations to check users and assignments, as well as the applications they are using within each assignment (taking into account the components included in each level).
This is a long and laborious process that has to be multiplied by all the users in the company and often cannot be done in time for pushback in negotiations. Our advice is to automate the verification process as much as possible.
Use a SAM (Software Asset Management) tool with advanced software recognition features included. These types of tools offer lists of already "normalised" data (thus avoiding background noise) and correctly reconcile the different Microsoft application families and software entitlements with their usage data (users, allocations, uses).
We configure in our customers’ tool a view dedicated only to Microsoft 365 and its licensing models.
What insights can you glean from these reports? You can see at a glance:
whether there are users using a subscription level that is higher than their real need
Le licenze M365 per le aziende (Business/Enterprise, a seconda del numero di utenti), vengono vendute sulla base di livelli sempre costosi, con ogni livello che fornisce applicativi e servizi aggiuntivi. Le differenze tariffarie tra un livello e l’altro non sono poche, si va dai 7,50 ai 58 euro.
There are subscriptions (e.g. E5) which have 25 applications into one combined offer. In their day-to-day work, there are some users who will benefit from the full offer, and others who could easily do their work with lower, cheaper levels (e.g. E3). Let's think about Visio and Project applications, which are part of the most expensive level: how much are they actually used?
Analysis of usage data in relation to allocations and users serves precisely this purpose: to identify excessive ownership. Even if allocations reflect company profiles, they may not necessarily match. How many C-levels, for example, delegate tasks to employees, even though they have all the tools to do so? What really matters are the workflows.
whether there are inactive licences
There are companies that, because of their size, have a very high turnover. You should therefore check in real time how many active and inactive users there are in the company ecosystem. What happens, in fact, is that we have subscriptions allocated and not used and subscriptions purchased but not yet allocated.
According to the Global Office 365 report mentioned earlier, just by redistributing inactive licences, 14% of total costs would be saved. On an expenditure of 500 thousand euros, 14% of the costs are 70 thousand euros, not bad!
if there are duplicate licences
It can happen that when switching from one licence model to another, the same person has several subscriptions. Let's take an example: an employee might have a perpetual device-based licence and an M356 a subscription that provides access to up to 5 devices. Wouldn't it make sense at this point to exclude the device in the perpetual licence from the pool of devices registered in the M365 licence?
There are many reasons for duplication: company mergers, purchases managed by different business functions, incorrect licence reactivations, etc.
We must therefore check whether there are users who have more than one licence. This work is also very useful for verifying compliance because it helps us to understand if there are any overlaps in the allocations compared to what was established in the contracts with the vendor.
re-allocate the unused with automatic reassignment plans
Once this information has been obtained in the form of reports, we recommend setting up automatisms to reconvert/reassign overused, unused or duplicate licences.
This also makes it easier to set up self-service subscription plan activation procedures: each user, monitored in their workflows, could receive a plan appropriate to their usage.
As an example, we set up automated workflows within the SAM tool that periodically check for unused applications. Since regulations require that they be reassigned to new users no more than once every 90 days, the system "logs" them and sets them aside, and then produces an alert for when they can be reassigned.
rationalize the technology
There is another aspect to take into account. Microsoft and its dozens of enhancements have created a technology stack that is sometimes almost redundant. There may be applications within the same bundle that have similar functionality (see, for example, Sharepoint/Dropbox and Teams/Zoom).
Sometimes a lower level is sufficient. We also recommend a technology analysis based on actual needs. This is also useful for assessing possible cheaper (or free) alternatives to lower subscription plans.
This analysis could also be useful for negotiating standardised licence agreements on a given pool of applications, achieving better economies of scale.
analyse the whole scope of expenditure
Although Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's flagship Saas suite, it is not the only product to look at to ensure business continuity. Servers, data centres, infrastructure etc. there are a number of companies that are planning to move business data and workloads to Microsoft's cloud, Azure.
This is why we recommend getting full visibility of all areas of spend - on-premises software, cloud infrastructure and Saas application usage - so that when negotiating, you have an overview that allows you to opt for an overall offer that benefits from the economies of scale of using multiple Microsoft solutions.
If the cost of licences cannot be reduced too much, other areas of optimisation can be found. The cloud, in particular, is known for its versatility and easiness of activation, but it has hidden costs that require ad hoc management. Without FinOps (Cloud Financial Management) practices and tools, you risk managing your Microsoft spend as if it were divided into many small silos.
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