A 100-person SMB spends an average of €18,000 to €26,000 per year on Microsoft 365 licenses. In 70% of cases, between 20 and 30% of that amount goes to waste — miscalibrated licenses, forgotten ghost accounts, SaaS subscriptions that duplicate tools already included. This is not a criticism: it is structural. When no one audits, the bill grows silently. Five concrete levers allow you to regain control.
Lever 1 — Audit active licenses vs. licenses actually used
Microsoft provides detailed usage reports directly in the M365 admin center. They are free, accessible in a few clicks, and most SMBs never consult them. That is where optimization begins.
The "User activity" report — accessible via M365 Admin Center → Reports → Usage — lists all accounts and their last login date, application by application. What you consistently find there: between 15 and 25% of licenses paid for inactive accounts.
The causes are always the same: an employee who left six months ago whose account was never deactivated, last summer's intern, an external contractor who needed temporary access. The license remains active. So does the billing.
Concrete action: run this report, filter on "no login in the past 60 days," and systematically deactivate. On 100 users, the average saving observed is 12 to 18 licenses recovered, representing between €1,700 and €4,700/year depending on the subscribed plan.
Lever 2 — Mix plans rather than assigning Business Premium to everyone
Business Premium costs €22 per user per month. It is the most comprehensive plan — and the most commonly sold, often by default. The problem: a large proportion of your employees do not need it.
Business Premium includes Intune, Defender for Business, Azure AD P1, and the full advanced security suite. It is essential for the CIO, the CFO, and field sales representatives. It is disproportionate for the executive assistant who uses Outlook, Teams, and Word.
For that profile, Business Basic at €6 per user per month covers Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and the web versions of Office. Immediate saving: €16/month per reassigned user.
The golden rule: audit actual usage by job profile, not by hierarchical level. On 100 users, a typical optimized mix (30% Premium, 40% Standard, 30% Basic) generates a saving of €7,000 to €9,000/year compared to 100% Business Premium.
Lever 3 — Eliminate duplicates with applications already included in M365
M365 Business Premium comes with around twenty applications that most SMBs never activate, because they subscribed to an external tool before migrating to Microsoft.
Examples of included applications that are frequently overlooked:
- Microsoft Forms — surveys and forms. Replaces SurveyMonkey (€30/user/month).
- Microsoft Planner — kanban task management. Replaces Trello (€12/user/month).
- Microsoft Bookings — online appointment scheduling. Replaces Doodle or Calendly (€8 to €16/user/month).
- Microsoft Whiteboard — collaborative whiteboard. Replaces Miro for basic use cases.
Concrete example: a client in the services sector (85 employees) identified during a Modern Workplace Audit three active SaaS subscriptions that were redundant with their M365: Trello, SurveyMonkey, and an electronic signature solution. Result after migrating to the included tools: €8,400 in annual savings, with no perceived loss of functionality for the teams.
Lever 4 — Make use of the Azure AD P1 you are already paying for
If you have Microsoft 365 Business Premium, you are already paying for Microsoft Entra ID P1 (formerly Azure AD P1). It is included in your subscription. In the vast majority of SMBs, this component is not activated — or only partially activated.
Entra ID P1 enables, among other things, Conditional Access — a system that controls who accesses what, from which device, and from which location. It is the foundation of a Zero Trust policy. And it eliminates the need for a third-party MFA tool at €4 or €5 per user per month.
On 100 users with an external MFA tool at €5/month: €6,000 in annual savings simply by activating what is already paid for. This lever is often the fastest to act on — it is purely a configuration task, achievable in half a day.
Lever 5 — Work through a CSP partner for month-by-month management
When you purchase your licenses directly on microsoft.com, you sign a fixed annual commitment. 100 licenses in January, 100 licenses in December — even if you hired in March and lost two employees in September.
A CSP — Cloud Solution Provider partner bills month by month, with real-time adjustments. You are launching a project that requires 5 additional Power BI Pro licenses? They are added. The project ends? They are removed. You only pay for what you actually consume.
This flexibility generates real savings on activity peaks and troughs — particularly for companies with variable headcounts or rapid growth.
How much can you save? A simulation for 100 users
Here is a realistic estimate of the cumulative savings achievable for a 100-person SMB currently at 100% Business Premium with no optimization:
- Lever 1 — Inactive accounts deactivated (15 licenses): €3,300 to €3,960/year
- Lever 2 — Plan mix adapted to profiles: €7,000 to €9,000/year
- Lever 3 — Removal of redundant SaaS tools (3 tools): €4,000 to €8,000/year
- Lever 4 — Removal of third-party MFA tool: €6,000/year
- Lever 5 — Switch to flexible CSP management: €1,500 to €3,000/year
Estimated total: €21,800 to €29,960/year — representing a 25 to 35% reduction on an initial bill of €26,400/year. Without changing tools. Without degrading the user experience.
Microsoft license optimization is not a full-time project. It is an annual review that takes one to two days with a partner who knows your environment.
The starting point: the Modern Workplace Audit. It covers a complete analysis of your Microsoft 365 usage — licenses, security, adoption, governance — and produces a prioritized action plan with estimated savings for your specific situation.
Request a free license audit — we analyze your Microsoft tenant and deliver a report within 5 business days.