M365 - License Optimization Center

With 2021 around the corner, (trust us, we can't believe it either!) it's a good time to start making plans for your organization for the coming year. One area in particular that can be a challenge for many organizations is Microsoft 365 license management. In the hopes of helping you navigate this hot topic, there's a few important factors you need to keep in mind that will hopefully make 2021 a successful year for your organization!

It may come as a surprise to you that 69% of companies reported over-spending on their cloud budget by 25% or more in a recent survey by Lead Market. Given the complexities of Office 365 license management, it’s understandable why so many organizations are overspending. With so many options, it often feels like you need a PhD to figure out where the savings are.

Cloud services like Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 are continuing to grow at rapid rates. Microsoft’s overall revenue in FY20 Q2 was $36.9 billion which means 14% growth compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. The Office 365 portion growth was 27% (up 30% in constant currency).

On October 23rd, Microsoft announced – a little out of the blue – they were going to introduce self-service purchase options for users on November 19th. The details of this change were put forward in a post in the message center, article MC193609 to be exact. In short, this option would introduce several changes for commercial tenants.