How do you respond to a Microsoft SAM engagement?

Treat a SAM engagement as an audit and build your own measured baseline before sharing any data. Microsoft uses partners to run Software Asset Management reviews that feel collaborative but feed the renewal. The buyer who controls the data controls the outcome.

What is the difference between a SAM engagement and an ESI?

A SAM engagement is a partner led review framed as optimization, while an Enhanced Software Inventory, or ESI, is a deeper data pull closer to a formal audit. Both end in a deployment number Microsoft uses commercially. Validate every count against your entitlements before you accept it.

How does a Microsoft SPLA audit differ?

A SPLA audit targets service providers and checks monthly usage reporting against actual deployment under the hosting agreement. Underreporting carries back charges. Reconcile your monthly SPLA reports against real tenant usage before the auditor does.

What triggers a Microsoft audit?

Common triggers include an EA renewal, rapid Azure growth, an M365 license mix change, and a merger. In the Microsoft reviews Morten Andersen supported in 2024 to 2025, an under licensed on premises Windows Server and SQL estate was the most frequent finding. Check those two first.

What is the strongest buyer side move in a Microsoft audit?

Reconcile entitlements yourself and tie any settlement to the next EA renewal. Microsoft would rather grow the agreement than collect a penalty, so use the audit to fix license mix and terms at the same time. Resolution and renewal are one negotiation.

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White Paper · Microsoft

The Microsoft Audit Defense Guide

A buyer side procedure for handling Microsoft SAM engagements, ESI reviews, SPLA audits, and the increasingly common audit motion that arrives embedded in an Enterprise Agreement renewal. Forty pages of containment, response, and commercial.

Format PDF + HTML

Read Time 20 Minutes

Last Updated February 14, 2026

What you will take away

SAM versus formal audit
Microsoft 365 export discipline
Azure deployment review
SPLA and CSP audit posture
Active Directory reconciliation

500+Enterprise Clients

$2B+Under Advisory

a leading industry analyst firmRecognized

100%Buyer Side

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Written byMorten AndersenCo Founder · ex IBM, ex Oracle

PublishedFebruary 13, 2026

Last updatedFebruary 14, 2026

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