SaaS Tools – They Are Great, But Be Careful…
At The SAM Club, we’ve seen numerous SaaS tools designed to help manage your Office/Microsoft 365 licensing. These tools provide valuable insights, such as identifying dormant accounts and licenses that can be re-harvested, and offering usage information around Teams, OneDrive, and Exchange data sizes plus other useful information.
However, a common misconception is that these tools can easily show how a licensed user could be downgraded from an E5 license to an E3 or even an E1/F1. When considering such changes, it is crucial to work with a software licensing specialist who thoroughly understands the licensing rules. Making uninformed decisions could lead your organisation into a non-compliance situation.
What Do We Mean by This?
Firstly, these tools typically only monitor cloud usage. Any activities a user performs on their local device may not be captured. For instance, if Office apps are installed locally, this would immediately rule out an E1/F1 license.
Secondly, consider the security and compliance applications included with an E5 license. Are these features being utilised and are they activated at the tenant level? If so, does the user benefit from these features on their device? If the answer is yes, downgrading the user from an E5 to an E3 or E1/F1 license could result in non-compliance. For more information on how the E5 licenses are activated, refer to Microsoft’s guidance on security and compliance.
Adobe has been known to use reporting to distinguish between generic accounts rather user accounts. Similarly, Microsoft can view your tenant and the licenses you hold. They could easily generate reports to identify organisations with an E5 license that have certain features enabled at the tenant level, and user accounts that appear not to be licensed for these benefits, to initiate an audit.
If you already have a tool or are thinking about investing in one to manage your Office/Microsoft 365 licensing, come and talk to The SAM Club. We offer unbiased, independent advice to help you make the right decisions and stay compliant. Contact us at [email protected].
