Large Multinational Security Organisation

Introduction

The client was a large multinational security company, headquartered in Europe. They are a significant user of Microsoft infrastructure products and wanted to get a full review of their Microsoft estate across their European network – this was 20 countries in total.

The product scope identified was Windows Server, System Centre, and SQL Server (plus associated client access licenses) with others to be added on discovery.

Their Challenges

The client had several challenges to overcome for this audit:

• There was no meaningful centralised data available for Microsoft deployments.
• Tight timescales – there were only 8 weeks in which to complete the ELP element of the project once the tool roll out was finished.
• Multiple independent countries and business units.
• No SAM or ITAM team in situ.

Their Objectives

The client’s objectives were:

• A clean baseline of all in-use Microsoft infrastructure software across Europe
• To have a full understanding of any licensing risks that needed to be addressed or opportunities for optimisation
• Full contract analysis and recommendations on how they could license the software more efficiently.

bedigital’s Solution

We followed a three-stage process for the full license optimisation for Microsoft:

1. Rolled out an inventory tool to gather data for in-scope Microsoft products.
2. Contract and entitlement analysis.
3. Full ELP for in-scope products.

How bedigital delivered

Once a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) was agreed, the client gave bedigital full access to the Microsoft estate for 20 European countries.

In the meantime, we were working with all relevant client stakeholders across the 20 European sites to gather data on license entitlements and software usage, so that we could create an early ELP and assess any risks that were prevalent.

Once we had a clear view of the full Microsoft estate, we were able to provide full, auditable and defensible ELPs for every country alongside a summary to cover the whole of Europe.

A full breakdown of the client’s contractual situation with Microsoft was worked on throughout the engagement, and we provided this to the client with a full entitlement report.

We also worked on providing clear and concise instructions on how the client could repeat the activity as they embedded SAM into their European organisation.

We discovered significant risks, which were fully identified and remediated. We identified a total cost avoidance figure of £1,648,768.66, this was a combined shortfall across Windows Server, and SQL Server usage in 14 countries. All risks were successfully remediated through technical interventions.

Challenges overcome

There were several challenges to overcome during the process:

• The client was a diverse organisation with different ways of working at a local level, making it harder to identify correct stakeholders and co-ordinate across all 20 countries.
• Daily standups with client’s project oversight board (including the Swedish CISO and the British CTO) made it challenging as we were having to get multiple approvals, which could at times delay working on the estate.

Outcomes

• The client was left with renewed confidence in its Microsoft licensing position and knowledge of what was required to manage it more effectively in the future.
• Gaps in the client’s knowledge were left filled, thanks to our work on compiling the license position and the valuable insights we were able to give them.
• There was a combined shortfall across Windows Server and SQL Server usage in 14 countries.  All risks were successfully remediated through technical interventions.

Benefits

• The work was completed to a standard higher than expected, despite the challenging timeline.
• A total savings figure of £1,672,522.76 was achieved on a combination of Window Server, SQL Server and Core Infrastructure Server Suite usage in 8 countries. We were able to technically optimise license usage to reduce it and advised the client to terminate subscriptions for unused licenses at their next renewal, which was a couple of months later.

Testimonial

“This was a challenging project for all concerned but bedigital performed beyond our expectations and gave us full confidence in our Microsoft position across multiple countries.  Thank you.” 

– The client’s CTO

Conclusion

As with all full software reviews, there are time pressures and challenges to overcome.  We created a plan at the beginning of the audit and followed it throughout, helping to ensure the client had no obligations to Microsoft. We identified cost saving opportunities and provided guidance to the client so they could repeat this exercise again in future.

Sample products

• Windows Server
• System Centre
• SQL Server