You’re Probably (Definitely) Paying Too Much for Office 365

The world of Office 365 licensing is a difficult one to manage. Office 365 licenses often feature varying numbers of seats and different license levels. It makes license management a bit of a nightmare—and it also often increases cost.

The truth is that your organization is probably paying too much for Office 365. A quick audit of enterprise Office 365 license agreements usually reveals multiple opportunities for savings and cost reductions.

Here are a couple of the most common ways that businesses can save on Office 365 costs.

Most organizations pay for more licenses than they need. There are many good reasons for this, including scaling up hiring and onboarding speed (and capacity). When it comes to software licensing, it’s generally better to have one too many than one too few.

But sometimes, too many is too many. Large organizations estimate the number of users they have, add a little wiggle room, and buy the number of seats they need. But often, they buy way too many seats. And then interns leave, departments downsize, positions consolidate… and the company is left with an abundance of unused seats that they’re still paying for.

Periodic audits ensure that companies aren’t detrimentally oversubscribed to Office 365.

Depending on license levels and needs, Office 365 features a host of additional productivity tools. For example, Microsoft offers Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Subscriptions often include these services, eliminating the need for other common solutions such as:

• DropBox
• Slack
• Jabber

Eliminating duplicate services can realize significant cost savings. Instead, Office 365 can provide the broad range of messaging, storage, and collaborative tools that modern offices require to stay productive.

There are many ways to optimize your enterprise’s Office 365 subscription model. A few potential ways to further save money on licensing include:

• Outsourcing admin tasks
• Reassign licenses
• Downgrade licenses

But the best way to find out where your organization can save on Office 365 is to fully audit your subscriptions. Most companies that do this save money—sometimes hundreds of thousands per year.

Hypershift is a consulting organization focused on SaaS services, subscription software, and cloud technologies. We help organizations navigate their shift toward subscription software models. We ensure best-in-class security, support, and management to optimize enterprise-level cloud strategies.

We will provide a free assessment of your current Microsoft agreement. We offer a partial overview of your Office 365 usage and patterns, cost optimization recommendations, and security vulnerabilities. You can use this assessment to cut wasted spend and evaluate a licensing renewal.

Get your free Office 365 audit and assessment here. We’ll give you a complimentary Echo Flex for your time.