What do Microsoft licensing services cover?
Microsoft licensing services cover every point where you commit money to Microsoft: the Enterprise Agreement or MCA E renewal, the M365 seat mix, the Azure commitment, Copilot, Unified Support, and any audit or true up. We measure what you use, then negotiate what you pay.
Microsoft negotiates thousands of enterprise agreements a year. You negotiate one every three years. Our job is to close that gap before the renewal quote lands, when the July 2026 price increase hits your seat mix, and when a true up or audit letter arrives.
The Microsoft practice runs these engagements, alone or together:
- Microsoft negotiation services for EA renewals, MCA E transitions and cross program deals, built on positions, benchmarks and timing
- Microsoft licensing experts for an independent license position, program choice and second opinions on quotes
- Microsoft audit defense for SAM engagements, self assessments, formal audits and SPLA reviews
- M365 license right sizing that sets E5, E3 and F3 from measured usage
- Azure FinOps and MACC advisory that sizes the commitment from verified burn
- Copilot AI optimization that ties seats and spend to demonstrated adoption
- The Unified Support review that challenges the fee calculation with priced alternatives behind it
Which Microsoft licensing service fits your situation?
Pick by the event in front of you. A renewal inside 12 months points to negotiation, a letter from Microsoft or its auditor points to audit defense, and drift in seats or cloud spend points to right sizing. Every engagement has a defined scope and up to four advisory calls with email support.
Microsoft negotiation services
Opening, fallback and walk away positions per SKU category, a leverage calendar against Microsoft's June 30 year end, and concession benchmarks from comparable deals.
See Microsoft EA negotiation →Microsoft audit defense
Scope the request, reconcile deployments against entitlements before anything is disclosed, challenge the draft claim line by line, and settle on your terms.
See Microsoft audit defense →Microsoft licensing experts
An independent read of your license position and program choice across EA, MCA E and CSP, with a written verdict on the quote in front of you.
Meet the Microsoft licensing experts →M365 license right sizing
E5, E3 and F3 set from measured usage by job family, with duplicate coverage and point products already bundled in E5 removed.
See M365 right sizing →Azure FinOps and MACC
The commitment sized from verified burn with idle workloads, missing reservations and unused Hybrid Benefit stripped first, and any shortfall turned into leverage.
See Azure MACC advisory →Copilot AI optimization
Seat counts matched to demonstrated adoption, credits and funding captured, and expansion gated behind usage thresholds with a contractual scale down right.
See Copilot optimization →Unified Support review
The calculation basis verified, ticket consumption measured against cost, and alternative support options priced as live leverage.
See the Unified Support review →Not sure which engagement fits?
Send us the Microsoft renewal proposal and we tell you which engagement fits, or whether you need one at all, within one business day.
Get a second opinion on your quote →Who leads the Microsoft practice?
Ethan Mullins, our Microsoft Practice Lead, runs Microsoft engagements day to day, and Co Founder Morten Andersen partners on the largest renewals. You deal with them directly, not with a junior bench.
Ethan Mullins
Ex Microsoft. Leads our Microsoft practice: Enterprise Agreement renewals, M365, Azure commitment optimization, Copilot economics, and the 2026 price increase response work.
Meet the management team →
Co FounderMorten Andersen
Co founder of Redress Compliance, ex IBM and ex Oracle, and a buyer side advisor since founding the firm in 2018. He runs the Vendor Shield subscription program and partners on our largest cross publisher renewal engagements.
Read Morten Andersen's profile →“Microsoft EA optimization is not a once a renewal exercise. The savings compound through the term.” That is how Morten frames it, and why we keep the true up and seat mix under control between renewals, not only in the months before signature.
How does a Microsoft licensing engagement run, step by step?
It runs in four steps, from your own data to a signed and documented close. First deliverables land within 10 business days of complete data, and most fixed scope engagements run eight to fourteen weeks.
Baseline
Agreements, entitlements, M365 usage, Azure consumption and point product subscriptions mapped from your records. No data goes to Microsoft yet.
Benchmark
Your quote measured SKU by SKU against comparable closed deals, with the CSP and MCA E alternatives priced side by side.
Strategy
Opening, fallback and walk away positions, sequenced against Microsoft’s quarter ends and its June 30 fiscal year end.
Negotiate and govern
Your team fronts Microsoft with our written read of every proposal. At close, the price book, side letter and entitlement register are handed over.
What you hold at the end of a full engagement:
- Independent EA baseline: the M365 seat base, Azure consumption and on premises residue measured from your own records
- M365 right sizing model: F, E3, E5 and Copilot seat math by job family, with a downgrade plan and budget impact by quarter
- Point product overlap report: Defender, Purview, Intune, Power BI and third party security spend already covered by E5
- Azure commitment model: commitment sized against the actual run rate, with Hybrid Benefit and reservation posture
- Negotiation playbook: levers ranked by value, a price target by SKU and the staged concession path
- Side letter at close: the price book locked, uplift capped and downgrade rights protected for the term
- True up control kit: a license request workflow, quarterly reconciliation and a validation checklist before each true up
- Executive briefing: a CFO summary of the position, savings achieved and residual risk
What changed in Microsoft licensing in 2025 and 2026?
Microsoft removed the volume discount on cloud products, stopped renewing many smaller EAs, and raised suite list prices. Each change moves money in Microsoft’s favor unless you plan the renewal around it.
- One Online Services price at every level: from November 1, 2025, Levels A to D pay the same Online Services price at renewal in the EA and MPSA. Level D still helps on premises products, but the volume discount no longer justifies the EA by itself.
- Smaller EAs steered away: below about 2,400 licenses, account teams now point customers to CSP or MCA E at renewal. It is not a published rule, so ask for it in writing with both alternatives priced.
- July 1, 2026 list increases: Microsoft 365 E3 moved from $36 to $39 and E5 from $57 to $60 per user per month, with Copilot listed at $30.
- Compounding price waves: across the EA renewals in our 2024 to 2026 file, two price waves in 24 months compounded to 11 to 19 percent against the prior cycle.
The full mechanics are in our Microsoft Enterprise Agreement 2026 renewal guide, a neutral buyer guide you can use with or without us.
What results have Microsoft clients achieved?
Published outcomes from Microsoft engagements, each documented on its own case study page. Across our 2024 to 2025 Microsoft file, the opening cross program offer sat 17 to 30 percent above the defensible buyer side number.
A Fortune 200 US retailer faced a $27 million annual Microsoft proposal. The signed renewal landed at $21.9 million, a 19 percent reduction, with protections that held through the term.
A Fortune 500 manufacturer closed its EA 20 percent below Microsoft’s first proposal, banking $9.4 million a year while ramping Copilot on its own adoption curve.
A Florida logistics firm saw support spend double in four years while case volume stayed flat. The case data, not a discount request, restructured the contract.
An Australian telecommunications company cut Microsoft CSP costs 15 percent across its multi year subscription envelope while gaining commercial flexibility.
How does Redress compare with a Big Four firm, a reseller or your own team?
The difference is who pays the advisor and what the advisor gains when you buy more. Each option below can be the right choice; the table sets out how they differ on independence, conflicts, Microsoft experience and fees.
Redress Compliance
- Independence: no Microsoft partner status, reseller agreement or referral fee
- Conflicts: none tied to what you buy
- Microsoft experience: practice led by an ex Microsoft lead, licensing and commercial terms only
- Fees: fixed fee, or 25 percent of savings on negotiations; never hourly
Big Four consultancy
- Independence: separate from Microsoft sales, though some firms hold alliance or implementation relationships
- Conflicts: possible where the same firm sells Microsoft implementation work
- Microsoft experience: broad advisory bench; licensing depth varies by team
- Fees: usually time and materials, billed by the hour or day
Reseller or Microsoft partner
- Independence: paid by Microsoft through margin and incentives
- Conflicts: earns more when you buy more or pick a given program
- Microsoft experience: deep product and transaction knowledge
- Fees: advice usually bundled into the license margin
In house team
- Independence: full
- Conflicts: none
- Microsoft experience: knows your estate best, with a limited view of what comparable buyers achieved
- Fees: staff time only
How much do Microsoft licensing services cost?
You choose between a fixed fee, scoped to the work and agreed up front, and a success fee on negotiation engagements of 25 percent of what we save you. You keep 75 percent, and if we save nothing you pay nothing.
Audit defense and licensing reviews are always fixed fee. We never bill by the hour.
Full negotiation mandate
- We run the renewal end to end with your team
- Benchmarks, strategy, counters and the close
- Fixed fee, or a success fee of 25 percent of what we save you
- You keep 75 percent; no savings, no fee
Fixed scope engagement
- Licensing review, right sizing, Azure, Copilot or Unified Support
- Microsoft audit defense from first letter to settlement
- One fixed fee, agreed before we start
- Your team faces Microsoft, we prepare and assess
Microsoft licensing services: what do buyers ask?
What do Microsoft licensing services include?
They cover Enterprise Agreement and MCA E renewal negotiation, M365 license right sizing, Azure commitment sizing, Copilot decisions, Unified Support reviews, and Microsoft audit defense. Each runs as a fixed scope engagement or inside a full renewal mandate.
How much do Microsoft licensing services cost?
You choose a fixed fee, scoped and agreed up front, or on negotiation work a success fee of 25 percent of what we save you. You keep 75 percent, and if we save nothing you pay nothing. Audit defense and licensing reviews are fixed fee, and we never bill by the hour.
How early should we engage before an EA renewal?
Engage nine to twelve months before expiry. Microsoft's concession authority follows its fiscal year, which ends June 30, and engagements that start inside the final quarter usually leave only single digit savings available.
Are you independent of Microsoft?
Yes. We hold no Microsoft partner status, no reseller agreement with any Licensing Solution Provider or Cloud Solution Provider, and take no referral fees. Our only income is the fee you pay us.
Our enrollment is below 2,400 licenses. Can we still renew the EA?
Expect Microsoft to steer you to CSP or MCA E instead. Microsoft has not published this as a formal rule, but account teams apply it in renewal conversations, so we price both alternatives before Microsoft raises them.
Do you work alongside our LSP or CSP partner?
Yes. The partner transacts the paper and we set the position: seat counts, SKU mix, commitment size, and contract terms. Your team keeps every vendor conversation, and we assess each Microsoft proposal in writing before you respond.
What data do you need to start?
Your Microsoft agreements and enrollments, admin center usage reporting, Azure consumption data for commitment work, and support case history for a Unified Support review. First deliverables land within 10 business days of complete data.
Can you help with a live Microsoft audit or true up?
Yes. Our Microsoft audit defense service builds your entitlement position first, then answers the auditor from reconciled data rather than raw exports. Audit defense is quoted as a fixed fee.
