Microsoft licensing engagements, scoped to fit.
A one-hour advisory call. A multi-week audit defense. The full assessment of your Microsoft estate. We scope to your situation — not to maximize ours.
We're not the software license police. We don't tell you what to buy or what to do.
Every engagement starts with a clear license position — what you have, where the gaps are, what your options look like. Some engagements stop there. Others go further: mitigating a true-up, optimizing a renewal, or going to bat against an auditor's overstated findings. The through-line is transparency. We give you the picture and the analysis. You decide what to do with it.
Below are the engagements we run most often. If your situation doesn't fit cleanly into one — and many don't — we'll scope a tailored engagement instead.
More on our license optimization approachMicrosoft Audit Defense
When Microsoft sends an audit notice, the auditor's findings will almost always overstate your actual exposure. Most of the work is articulating the compliance you already have, pushing back on inflated claims, and quietly closing the gaps that are real. We've done this through hundreds of audits — across all four Big 4 firms.
Organizations that have received a Microsoft audit notification, SAM engagement request, or compliance review.
What's included
- Independent inventory verification
- Auditor finding review and rebuttal drafting
- Pushback strategy on overstated claims
- Client-side communication and response support
- Settlement negotiation guidance
SPLA Audit Defense
SPLA audits are among the most complex in the Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft can look back five years, with shortfalls compounding monthly — which is why initial findings are typically large. Most licensing consultancies don't take SPLA work on. We do.
Hosting providers, ISVs, MSPs, and other service providers operating under a Microsoft SPLA agreement.
What's included
- SPLA contract and reporting analysis
- Subscriber count verification across the lookback period
- Product use rights assessment
- Historical reporting reconciliation
- Audit pushback, rebuttal drafting, and negotiation support
True-Up & Renewal Support
Renewal windows are when Microsoft's leverage is highest. We help you walk in with clean numbers, a defensible position, and a clear view of where you can mitigate a true-up or reduce renewal cost — built on data that doesn't depend on Microsoft's own tooling to tell you what you owe.
More on our license optimization approachOrganizations approaching an EA True-Up deadline, MPSA renewal, or other Microsoft agreement renewal.
What's included
- Pre-True-Up license reconciliation baseline
- Reporting validation and preparation
- Renewal scenario analysis (current vs. alternate paths)
- Cloud transition planning where relevant
- Negotiation guidance and talking-point preparation
License Reconciliation
A complete current-state assessment of your Microsoft estate across servers, desktops, and cloud. We inventory what's deployed, compare against your entitlements, and deliver a clear, defensible license position you can act on.
Organizations that need a complete picture of their Microsoft licensing before strategic decisions, M&A activity, or proactive risk reduction.
What's included
- Complete hardware and software inventory
- Entitlement analysis from every license source
- Gap analysis with remediation options
- Optimization opportunities surfaced
- Executive summary and detailed findings report
Windows Server Engagement
Focused assessment of your Windows Server estate — physical hosts, virtual machines, clustering, vMotion/DRS movement, and hybrid cloud scenarios. Particularly valuable when complex virtualization makes per-host licensing exposure hard to pin down.
Organizations with complex server environments — especially those running VMware, Hyper-V, or Nutanix at scale.
What's included
- Physical and virtual server inventory
- Processor, core, and socket counts for licensing
- Virtualization rights analysis (host vs. VM)
- Datacenter vs. Standard edition optimization
- CAL requirements assessment
SQL Server Engagement
SQL Server licensing is among the most complex and most expensive in the Microsoft portfolio. We analyze your SQL deployment to ensure proper licensing, surface optimization opportunities, and build the position you'll need if SQL becomes the focus of an audit.
Organizations with multiple SQL Server deployments, SQL-heavy estates, or facing SQL-specific questions in an audit.
What's included
- SQL Server instance inventory across the estate
- Edition and version analysis
- Core vs. CAL licensing assessment
- Developer/Test edition usage verification
- Azure Hybrid Benefit applicability analysis
Targeted Advisory
Not every situation needs a full engagement. A focused advisory call answers a specific licensing question, validates a position you're unsure about, or gives you a second opinion before a major decision. Sometimes one hour is all that's needed.
Organizations with a specific licensing question that needs an expert read, without committing to a full assessment.
What's included
- One-hour focused consultation calls
- Written advisory memos on specific questions
- Second-opinion reviews of vendor or partner advice
- Scenario walkthroughs for procurement decisions
- Point-in-time guidance on contract terms or product use rights
How engagements are structured
We scope and price engagements three ways, depending on the work and your preference.
Fixed fee — the default
Most engagements are scoped at a fixed fee based on the size and complexity of your environment. You know the cost upfront. No hourly billing surprises, no scope-creep upsells.
Risk-share — for audit defense and optimization
Aligned incentivesFor audit defense and optimization engagements where the financial outcome is measurable, we offer risk-share pricing. Reduced upfront fee, with a percentage of documented savings. Our incentives are aligned with yours — we make more when you save more.
Scoped to fit — from one hour to multi-week
A one-hour advisory call is priced like a one-hour advisory call. A six-week audit defense is priced like a six-week audit defense. You won't get pushed into a six-figure engagement for a one-hour problem.
Where to start.
Schedule a 30-minute call. Tell us where you're starting — heading into an audit, planning a renewal, or just trying to understand your license position. We'll tell you what we'd do, and whether we're the right fit for the work.