Unlocking Savings: How to Optimize Your Microsoft Agreement
When you want to optimize your license cost you need to understand your current and future use of the technology.
In other words, “DATA IS KEY!” Data is your golden nugget.
Most organizations think that they need expensive and fancy tooling. It certainly saves you time, but without an investment in a tool you are able to get your data too.
In this blog and video, we will show you how to export the M365 usage reports and how to analyze them.
Data Exports
Before you are able to analyze the data and optimize you licenses we need to make a few data exports out of you Microsoft 365 tenant.
Which rights do I need?
For the license and usage information you need to be an admin in the tenant. There are several roles. The role you need for these data insights are Usage Summary Reports Reader, License Admin and Exchange admin.
Please also ask your global admin to uncheck “Display concealed user, group and site names in all reports.
- Make sure to be still logged in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center as an Admin: https://admin.microsoft.com/
- Go to Settings –> Org Settings –> Services –> Reports, and be sure “Display concealed user, group and site names in all reports” is unchecked and save: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/Settings/Services/:/Settings/L1/Reports
User and license export
- Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center as an Admin: https://admin.microsoft.com/
- Go to Users –> Active Users: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/users
- Select all users and click on “Export Users”:
Go to Billing –> Licenses and Export the licenses overview: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/licenses
Usage Exports
- Go to Reports –> Usage –> Microsoft 365 apps: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/reportsUsage/ProPlusUsage
- Set the time period to 180 days and export the report at the bottom beneath the graphs.
- Please make the same export for “Usage” and “Active Users”: https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/reportsUsage/ProPlusUsage
To analyze the email activity, we go to “Exchange”
- Please go to Mailbox usage section and set the time period to 180 days and export at the bottom beneath the graphs.
- https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/reportsUsage/EmailActivity
- To analyze the OneDrive usage, we go to “OneDrive”. https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher#/reportsUsage/OneDriveSiteUsage
- Please go to the “Usage” section and set the time period to 180 days and export the report at the bottom beneath the graphs.
- Go to the Exchange Online Admin Center –> Mailboxes –> Export Mailboxes:
- Note: for this export you need to be an Exchange admin.
- https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com/#/mailboxes
How to analyze these reports?
You now have made all the exports and are able to analyze the data. We’ve made a step-by-step approach to analyze the data with the key outcome to optimize your licenses.
- User export:
Here we look for non-user’s accounts. For example, “fabric001” or “MeetingRoomAmsterdam” or Shared Accounts. There are more cost-effective ways to license these kinds of accounts.
- License export:
Here we look for the delta of the available vs usage licenses. All the unused licenses we could reduce in the contract to save cost.
- Usage exports:
We start with the Office apps. In the export you’re able to find per user if they have used the office application. We filter on 90 or 180 days not used. This will give us the potential list of optimizing M365 E3 or Office365 E3 to an E1 of F-type of license. Before we are able to do that, we analyze their email and OneDrive usage.
