Manage a Microsoft True-up with one Microsoft License Portal

Count and count well…

This strategy might be OK for MSPs who manually manage a small number of Microsoft 365 licenses. But what happens to Direct Microsoft CSPs who work with several large-scale enterprises? How do they efficiently and accurately manage a manual Microsoft true-up?

Speaking frankly, they can’t. Manually analyzing a large number of licences for multiple tenants and users is a recipe for disaster.

Not only will this take hours; sometimes days, but it’s an inefficient way of working. You can also guarantee errors. Imagine being the CIO of a small company having to explain to their customer why $2,000 was wasted on unassigned Microsoft 365 licenses last month. Cue a very unhappy customer. 

So many tasks take priority over true-ups, which are often rushed at the last minute. However, this shouldn’t, and needn’t be the case. The CSPs who lean on their automated Microsoft licence portal to collect information over the year, will come out on top at true-up time. 

What is a license true-up or a Microsoft true-up?

A Microsoft true-up is an annual evaluation of the number of qualified Microsoft 365 licenses you’ve deployed in your EA.

An inventory of all the qualified devices, users, and processors added over the course of the year.

During the year, MSPs can deploy or remove as many Microsoft 365 licenses that they wish. You just need to make sure you submit the data on time, otherwise you could be lumped with a licensing compliance audit.  

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Cloud User Hub

Haga frente al caos asociado a la gestión de los clientes en la nube de Microsoft 365 gracias a nuestra plataforma de automatización y gestión multiusuario.

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Common Microsoft true-up challenges

According to studies, 56% of organizations Microsoft 365 licenses are mismanaged, and 27% of E5 licenses are unassigned. On top of this CSPs also juggle inactive licenses and those sitting at a higher tier than necessary.

Companies rely on their IT Service Providers to manage their IT ecosystem efficiently. If their Microsoft licenses end up mismanaged, there is a high possibility they will end up paying for ones they are not using or don’t need. Which could be tricky to explain when billing queries come in.

Customer satisfaction will decrease, and clients may end up moving to competitors. MSPs and cloud service providers (CSPs) could end up losing money if customers make the decision to leave.

Hence why using the year to get organized with your true-up is a no brainer.

The solution: use one Microsoft License Portal (Direct Microsoft CSPs Only)

It’s very common for discrepancies to exist between the number of employees and licenses. On top of this, many MSPs log in an out of various automation portals to manage multiple tenants and user environments. This makes it challenging to collate the license true-up data at the end of the year.

If you’re a Direct Microsoft CSP using Cloud User Hub, license data is collected throughout the year in one Portal. No more logging in and out of multiple customer platforms. This will make your true-up life a lot easier. You can also set up best practices to make your license management way more efficient.

• Use pre-set automated Command Blocks and Command Sets to manage any true-up tasks. Your workflow can define the true-up process. Program it to remove old users and devices and optimize license usage all year round.
• Use the same process to keep an updated report of all user licenses, subscriptions and devices. Capture this data throughout the year to save days of work at true-up time.

The other benefits of using one automation solution

CSPs often face roadblocks when having to manually manage frequently changing licenses and users. This is understandable when you manage huge enterprise customers and tenant numbers with little or no automation.

An accurate Microsoft 365 license true-up is essential as it will stop you from being audited. Also, it will keep customers from straying to competitors. Rest assured there will be others out there who have the automation tools to service customers better.

Unmanaged licences can lead to huge, snowballing challenges for CSPs and customer. However, using one portal to manage multi-tenants Microsoft 365 environments will help in so many other ways.

1.   Your help desk capacity

A user’s Microsoft 365 license management is an extremely important part of the help desk team’s day-to-day workload. However, this task is often low on their priority list due to other pressing issues.

You can use automation to do help here. Using one Microsoft licence portal to deploy, unassign, and control multi-tenant licenses is not only a huge time saver, but an efficient way of working.

Solutions like Cloud User Hub will also make Microsoft true-up sessions a lot quicker and easier.

2.   Control customer costs

Inactive, unassigned, or underutilized Microsoft licenses will mean customers are paying for licenses they no longer need, or aren’t using to their full potential. This isn’t ideal.

Automation can help to provide customers with accurate data, resulting in accurate costs. Your customers will then have faith that you’re in full control of their license planning. You can also say goodbye to unnecessary overheads.

3.   Customer access

Many automation solutions provide a customer self-service function. Giving customers control of license management is a blessing. It takes some of the license burden off your hands. When setting this up for customers, make sure you set relevant permissions and rules to collect license data. If this isn’t done, there could be a skew in your true-ups as:

• Customers won’t know what licenses they really need
• Their selection might end up underutilized 

Make licence management and Microsoft true-ups easier by operating out of one Microsoft Licence Portal

One in five employees use a Microsoft 365 service. With over 200 million monthly active users, it’s no surprise MSPs struggle to manage Microsoft 365 licenses manually. Unless processes are in tip-top shape and you have a team of service desk superstars, support tickets and license true-ups can fall through the cracks.

Luckily, there are smart ways to make sure clients are only paying for the Microsoft 365 licenses they use, and the user is correctly matched to said license.

The CSPs who use one automation solution can breathe a sigh of relief at true-up time. They know their portal’s yearly data accumulation will showcase accurate results in an efficient way.

Find out how Cloud User Hub can help you get to grips with your Microsoft true-ups. Click here.