Are You Spending Too Much On Software?

You probably don’t need much convincing that Microsoft 365 and Azure are powerful platforms. But are you genuinely squeezing all the value you can from what you’re paying for?

Whether it’s forgotten licences, overlapping apps or underused features, most businesses are leaking money across their Microsoft environments without realising it.

And it’s not just about the direct costs, there is also the question of complexity.

With users joining and leaving, new features being released almost monthly, and evolving work patterns, keeping your licensing efficient and up to date can quickly turn into a full-time job.

Add in licensing rule changes, product bundling and perpetual updates from Microsoft, and staying on top of it all becomes nearly impossible. Not to mention ensuring you’re actually making use of the tools and security features that could replace expensive third-party alternatives sitting idle.

Cost-cutting in the Microsoft cloud isn’t just possible, it’s proven. With the right visibility, insight and analysis, most organisations can dramatically reduce wasted spend.

The trick lies in accessing that insight and executing changes consistently. That’s where a managed service provider (MSP) comes in...

Microsoft 365: Use What You Already Pay For

Microsoft 365 is packed with tools that boost productivity, enhance collaboration and improve security. But the sheer scale of what’s available can sometimes work against you. This is especially true if there’s no clear plan on how the services are deployed, used and maintained across your business.

You might be surprised how common it is for businesses to:

• keep licences active for users who have left or no longer need access
• pay for both Microsoft tools and third-party alternatives that do the same job
• maintain uniform licence types for employees performing vastly different roles
• pay for premium features that are never adopted due to a lack of awareness or training.

That last point is key – adoption is everything. You might be on a Business Premium licence that includes security features, advanced data loss prevention, compliance tools and automation capabilities… but never tap into them.

Without usage tracking and user engagement metrics, it’s incredibly difficult to know what’s being used and what isn’t.

Strengthening your licence management process brings quick wins. For example, removing seats held by inactive accounts or downshifting underused licences can offer immediate savings.

Going further, many Microsoft 365 security features can replace costly standalone tools – from smarter identity and access management to protection, and everything in between. But to make that switch confidently, you need data.

With the right analysis, you can understand which features are actually used, which apps contribute to real productivity, and which licences are genuinely necessary. That enables you to consolidate apps, respond to business needs more flexibly and drive higher value from your investment.

Microsoft Azure: Bring Predictability to Your Cloud Budget

Azure’s strength lies in its on-demand model but that flexibility can come at a cost. Without careful oversight, cloud services can proliferate unchecked. One test environment turns into a forgotten virtual machine, or a small-scale deployment quietly scales up into an oversized and underused environment.

For many, Azure bills swing sharply from month to month, often catching finance teams off guard. The challenge isn’t just that spend fluctuates but that it’s difficult to map costs to specific projects or departments without robust monitoring and resource tagging.

Taking control of Azure costs means going beyond usage reports. You need insight that helps you to:

• forecast future billing based on historical trends and known changes to come
• attribute spend accurately to each business function or team to encourage accountability
• eliminate unused or underutilised resources before they quietly accrue cost
• track how pricing shifts over time and adjust resource types or provisioning accordingly.

Microsoft itself promotes a best-practice approach through FinOps, a financial operations framework designed to align cloud spending with business value. Applying these principles requires continuous attention, meaningful metrics and proactive action.

That’s where an experienced MSP becomes invaluable. Equipped with the tools to see into your cloud usage and the time to act on it, your MSP can keep your Azure budget on track – not just reactive but predictably managed.

Boost Productivity Through Real Insight

Of course, cost control tells only part of the story. You also need to understand whether your investment in technology is translating into tangible business outcomes. If your staff aren’t using what you’re paying for – or are struggling with the tools you’ve given them – then you’re not just losing money, you’re wasting time and missing opportunities.

Monitoring Microsoft 365 application usage gives you insights like:

• which apps are widely adopted and becoming part of your digital workflow
• which user groups are not engaging with particular tools and why not
• how change initiatives are received across teams or locations
• where additional training or communication may be required to unlock the full value of a product.

Granular insights into feature-level usage, collaboration tools in Teams, or automation flows in Power Automate, help you to get beyond surface-level adoption. These details inform better rollout plans, more targeted user support and higher-value digital transformation efforts.

It’s not just about hitting licence utilisation targets. It’s about equipping every employee with the know-how and support they need to be genuinely productive – on platforms you're already paying for.

PSTG Can Make All This Happen – Without Extra Work for You

At this point, it might sound like a huge amount of work. And it is if you’re going it alone.

Auditing licences… managing change… interpreting Azure billing… reviewing security coverage… mapping usage analytics… Trying to do that off the side of someone’s desk just doesn’t scale. The reality is that most businesses never get around to it, or revisit it only every 12-18 months in a reactive burst.

But we’re already equipped for this kind of continuous oversight. We have access to advanced tools that connect Microsoft usage, licence data, security coverage and app performance across the business. So insights don’t just sit in dashboards – they turn into concrete recommendations.

AI-driven suggestions make it possible to identify cost-saving opportunities, track progress and implement changes without the need for an internal task force.

Where decisions are needed, they’re backed by data. Where action is required, we handle the technical side. You can define your level of involvement – whether you want a full audit and roadmap, ongoing optimisation or step-by-step improvements.

How PSTG Makes Your Microsoft Investment Count

You’ve already spent the money. Now it’s time to put it to work.

Optimisation isn’t about cutting back for the sake of it. It’s about doing more with the same resources, reducing waste, improving adoption and making sure every tool supports actual business outcomes.

With our help, you’ll have complete visibility over where your investment is going, what’s working and what isn’t. We provide proactive guidance that keeps your Microsoft environment lean, secure and productive – without turning it into a manual process for your team.

Contact us to find out more. Your smarter Microsoft spend could start today.