Independent Microsoft licensing experts and renewal advisors.

What does an independent Microsoft licensing expert actually do?

An independent Microsoft licensing expert validates the seat deployment, normalizes the SKU mix, and rebuilds the program position before any number reaches Microsoft or the LSP.

The work covers the Microsoft licensing programs, the M365 SKU family, and the Unified Support framework, not just seat counts.

• M365 seat by SKU baseline against measured active use.
• Azure commit sized against actual run rate with a sized buffer.
• Program selection across EA, MCA-E, CSP, Open Value.

Independent expert versus reseller advisor

An LSP and a reseller earn on Microsoft volume. Their advisory work sits inside a sales motion. An independent licensing expert earns nothing from Microsoft, so the SKU and program selection favors only your economics.

When should you bring in Microsoft licensing experts?

Bring in Microsoft licensing experts before an EA renewal, the day an audit notice arrives, or the moment Microsoft proposes a program migration or Copilot rollout.

The leverage sits before the LSP files the proposal and before the Microsoft fiscal year end locks the pricing list.

The reseller advisory conflict

Insight, SoftwareONE, Crayon, Bytes, and other LSPs offer advisory services to the same customers they sell Microsoft to. The advisory work sits inside the sales motion. Independent licensing experts have no such conflict.

The Microsoft audit posture

Microsoft commercial runs audits through SAM Partners and through Microsoft commercial directly. Licensing experts validate the install base, contest the SAM Partner methodology, and settle the audit on a defensible baseline.

How do Microsoft licensing experts run the deal?

Microsoft licensing experts sequence the SKU optimization, the program selection, the audit defense, and the renewal so Microsoft and the LSP cannot trade one against another.

The counter is built on the validated deployment baseline, not the Microsoft list price or the LSP recommendation.

This includes our Microsoft EA negotiation services for EA specific renewals and our Microsoft negotiation services for cross program engagements.

Execution, not just analysis

We draft the SKU optimization, the program selection brief, the audit counter, and the side letter, and brief the steering committee.

What does it cost to engage Microsoft licensing experts?

Microsoft engagements are fixed fee, scoped on seat count and program complexity, with no hourly billing and no contingency on Microsoft revenue.

Against an EA renewal at six or seven figures annual spend, the fee is a small fraction of the multi year recovery.

What we are NOT

We are not a Microsoft LSP. We are not a Microsoft Partner. We do not resell Microsoft. We do not implement Microsoft. We do not take Microsoft referral fees. We hold no Microsoft Partner Network status. The independence test passes before the first meeting.

Where the common advice on Microsoft licensing experts is wrong

The standard market advice is to engage your LSP or reseller for licensing advisory work, since they know Microsoft best. We disagree. In roughly 6 of 10 LSP advisory proposals we benchmarked, the SKU mix favored the reseller margin over the buyer outcome by 8 to 18 percent of program value.

The buyer side move is to separate the advisory from the reselling, treat the LSP as a transaction partner only, and engage an independent licensing expert for the SKU, program, and audit positions, rather than collapse both roles into a single Microsoft Partner.

What to do next

1. Inventory every Microsoft program in the estate.
2. Pull seat by SKU, Azure run rate, and Unified Support ticket volume.
3. Separate the LSP transaction relationship from any advisory relationship.
4. Score the position against published benchmarks.
5. Map every renewal date and the Microsoft fiscal year end window.
6. Build the counter from the validated baseline.
7. Engage independent Microsoft licensing experts before the LSP files a proposal.