A prominent Swiss bank with a global presence and over 40,000 employees engaged Redress Compliance to manage its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement renewal. Through comprehensive deployment analysis, licence optimisation, benchmarking, and strategic negotiation, Redress delivered CHF 9 million in total savings over three years — a 27% reduction in overall licensing costs.
A prominent Swiss bank with a global presence and over 40,000 employees engaged Redress Compliance to assist in renewing its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA). The bank relied on Microsoft's technology stack to support critical financial services, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency across its international operations.
With the EA renewal approaching, the bank identified several strategic objectives:
| Objective | Why It Mattered |
|---|---|
| Deployment Analysis | Understand actual Microsoft usage across business units — Office 365, Azure, Dynamics 365 — to identify waste and alignment gaps |
| Licence Optimisation | Reduce unnecessary costs by eliminating underutilised, duplicate, and redundant licences across the global portfolio |
| Strategic Roadmap | Develop a three-year plan aligning Microsoft investments with the bank's digital transformation and cloud migration strategy |
| Benchmarking | Compare costs and terms against peer financial institutions to ensure competitive pricing and industry-standard terms |
| Negotiation | Secure a flexible, cost-effective agreement aligned with business objectives — including Azure and Dynamics 365 discounts |
Microsoft EA renewals are high-stakes events for financial institutions. The three-year renewal cycle is Microsoft's primary mechanism for resetting commercial terms and pushing price increases. Banks face particular pressure due to regulatory requirements that limit their ability to walk away from Microsoft dependencies, and Microsoft's sales teams know this. Without independent benchmarking and expert negotiation support, financial institutions routinely overpay by 15-30% on EA renewals.
Deployment analysis is the single most important step in any EA renewal. Microsoft's renewal proposals are based on your existing entitlements — not your actual usage. This means you are almost always being asked to renew licences you don't need. In our experience, 20-35% of Microsoft licences in large financial institutions are underutilised, misallocated, or entirely unused. Identifying this waste before engaging Microsoft is the foundation of effective negotiation.
| Roadmap Element | Details | EA Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Transformation | Three-year plan for cloud migration, modern workplace adoption, and AI-driven analytics | Ensured EA terms supported planned workload growth without penalty |
| Microsoft Solution Prioritisation | Identified key Microsoft solutions aligned with innovation and operational efficiency goals | Focused EA investment on high-value products, removed low-value inclusions |
| Flexibility & Adaptability | Built flexibility into the roadmap to accommodate evolving business and regulatory demands | Negotiated scalable terms that allowed licence adjustment during the EA term |
Benchmarking is the negotiation lever most organisations lack — and the one Microsoft fears most. Without independent benchmarking data, you cannot know whether Microsoft's proposed pricing represents genuine value or an inflated starting position. We compared the Swiss bank's licensing costs and terms against similar financial institutions globally, identifying specific areas where Microsoft's proposal exceeded market norms. This data directly informed our negotiation strategy and gave the bank's procurement team the confidence to push back on Microsoft's initial offer.
| Negotiation Tactic | Details | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Data-Driven Counter-Proposal | Leveraged deployment analysis and optimisation findings to present a precise, evidence-based counter-proposal to Microsoft | Shifted negotiation from Microsoft's inflated baseline to actual usage |
| Azure Discount Negotiation | Used consumption data and competitive alternatives to negotiate enhanced Azure pricing | Secured significant discounts on Azure services |
| Dynamics 365 Optimisation | Challenged Microsoft's proposed Dynamics 365 licence counts based on actual user requirements | Reduced Dynamics 365 costs through right-sizing |
| Term Flexibility | Negotiated contract terms allowing adjustment of licensing volumes and future scalability | Built-in flexibility for 40,000+ employee workforce changes |
| Metric | Before Redress | After Redress | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Licence Optimisation Savings | — | CHF 5,800,000 | 🟢 Role-based licensing + deduplication |
| Negotiated Discount Savings | — | CHF 3,200,000 | 🟢 Azure + Dynamics 365 discounts |
| Total 3-Year Savings | — | CHF 9,000,000 | 🟢 Over the EA term |
| Overall Cost Reduction | Baseline | 27% lower | 🟢 Across entire Microsoft estate |
| Compliance Status | Gaps identified | Fully compliant | 🟢 All discrepancies resolved |
| Licence Management | Fragmented across BUs | Centralised, transparent | 🟢 Single governance framework |
| Cloud Readiness | Unstructured | 3-year roadmap aligned | 🟢 EA supports digital transformation |
Redress Compliance's expertise was invaluable during our Microsoft EA renewal. Their strategic approach ensured we achieved significant cost savings and secured an agreement tailored to our long-term objectives. Their insights were critical to our success.
1. Never renew based on entitlements. Microsoft's renewal proposal is based on what you currently have — not what you actually use. Conducting a thorough deployment analysis before engaging Microsoft typically reveals 20-35% waste in large financial institutions.
2. Role-based licensing is essential at scale. A 40,000-employee bank does not need 40,000 E5 licences. Profiling users by actual requirements (power users, standard users, frontline workers) and matching them to the appropriate Microsoft SKU is one of the highest-ROI optimisation levers.
3. Benchmark everything. Without independent benchmarking data, you have no way to evaluate whether Microsoft's pricing is competitive. Peer comparison across similar financial institutions provides the evidence needed to push back on inflated proposals.
4. Negotiate Azure and Dynamics 365 separately. Microsoft often bundles these into the EA at list pricing. Both Azure consumption commitments (MACC) and Dynamics 365 licence counts should be negotiated independently based on actual usage data.
5. Build flexibility into the EA. Financial institutions face regulatory changes, M&A activity, and workforce fluctuations. Negotiating scalable terms that allow licence adjustment during the EA term protects against overpaying for unused capacity.
6. Engage independent experts early. Starting 9-12 months before EA expiry gives time for proper analysis, benchmarking, and strategy development. Engaging at the last minute hands all leverage to Microsoft.
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