Is Your Business Overpaying for Licensing?
The other day I was having a conversation with a business owner regarding their overall running costs. One thing that came up was that their licensing seemed to be through the roof. The business owner asked me: "What is a really good way of auditing our licensing to make sure we're not overspending against what we're actually using?"
This is actually a really good question. It's quite rare that you'll ever find a business or a charity that has perfect licensing. It consistently drifts — whether that be Microsoft licensing or a vendor specific to your industry. There will always be a few over, a few under, but there can be drastic swings as well.
A really good way of auditing your licensing is to appoint an organisation like Staple to help you work through it and understand your running costs. Failing that, reference your licensing against your headcount — that's usually a really good place to start. Also, look at your seat base. You may find that you're paying for four seats where only two are being used. You may also find that your activations, if tied to a device, may be off.
These are all really good places to start, but ultimately a thorough audit never hurts. We can carry out a free IT audit for you and provide a competitive quote when it comes to reviewing your licensing and reducing your costs. We find that the vast majority of our clients recoup what they paid for the consultancy — in a relatively short period of time — through licensing savings.