Savings reduction of 23% in Microsoft 365 spend
Delivered savings of approximately £3.7m
Introduction
bedigital were already advising the organisation on their Software Asset Management function, when we were approached to help profile the organisation’s End User subscriptions as they had a mixed estate of Windows, MacOS and Google devices in the end-user space.
Their challenge
The organisation had an end-user footprint of over 80,000 people working in a variety of roles, from office-based administration, to engineering and field staff, all requiring different levels of IT access.
They did not have Microsoft 365 subscriptions and not every employee required all the applications within the M365 bundle.
Our solution
Working with the Domain Architects, responsible for End User Compute, we initially created a ‘technical requirements’ outline, categorising users by role and by function. As part of this process, we reviewed:
- Non-Windows devices that require additional subscriptions
- Assessment of user requirements and capabilities offered by either E5 or F3 subscriptions
- Introductory discounts offered by Microsoft and projected costs for year 4, 5 or 6
Outcomes
Working with the client, we designed six user profiles, ranging from M365 F3 to E3 generally, with some specific cases for EMS and Windows subscriptions only.
At a high-level, this was an experienced-based spreadsheet estimate using subscription costs to model the financials. In addition, during the organisation’s deployment of Office, bedigital collected usage information from the Microsoft Tenant to increase understanding of current capabilities for Microsoft 365.
This data collection was then used to help the organisation prepare training programs to develop the user’s awareness of functionality available to them, such as correct storage location for documentation via OneDrive, SharePoint etc.
Although this was a supplementary project that ran alongside the assignment, it meant that the organisation had a range of subscriptions, which allowed them to move users between different subscriptions. It also allowed the organisation to negotiate specific subscription models and pricing with Microsoft, removing the requirement for an estate to globally subscribe to a single model.
Results
This resulted in a savings reduction of 23% in Microsoft spend and delivered savings of approximately £3.75m.
