Software Asset Management Professionals

Project For The Web Now Available

Posted on November 26, 2019August 6, 2024 by Ben Tight

Price And Product Impact of Project For The Web

Microsoft’s newest offering for cloud-based project management, Project for the web, expands on the Project platform, but may have a pricing impact to you. Microsoft currently has the following Project Online products available, Project Essentials, Project Pro and Project Premium. This new offering Project for the web is the entry level Project management program, designed to be used by task-level employees. With the new Project for the web, Microsoft has aligned the subscription structure with other Office 365 products, moving from the “Essentials”, “Professional”, and “Premium” titles, to the familiar E1, E3, and E5 plans, labeled Project Plans 1,3, and 5 respectively. This shift in titles may also include an increase in price for the E1 type users.

What Is Project For The Web?

Project for the web is Microsoft’s newest cloud-based project management tool. The “For the Web” moniker refers to the fact that the Projects system is accessible in a browser-based format. As Microsoft describes it:

Project for the web is Microsoft’s most recent offering for cloud-based work and project management. Project for the web provides simple, powerful work management capabilities to meet most needs and roles. Project managers and team members can use Project for the web to plan and manage work of any size.

What does that actually mean? Project for the web allows teams to remotely work together, view project roadmaps, schedule tasks, create and track milestones, and compile reports. For the web also integrates with most of Microsoft’s other online offerings, allowing a smoother workflow across Office 365, Power Apps, and Microsoft Flow. This means that a project manager can assign and schedule tasks to their team members. From there, the team members can see where on the project roadmap they are, what tasks have been completed or are still open, and even create reports.

Project Pricing Tiers

Microsoft is continuing with their trend of tiered-subscription models for Project for the web, but they have also rebranded the tiers. The former “Project Online Professional” is now Project Plan 3, while “Project Online Premium” has become Project Plan 5. Let’s look at what each tier will cost you compared to their previous price. If you want to check out some of the features available with those plans. See Microsoft’s Project pricing page.

Project Plan 1

Project Plan 1 gives users access to only Project for the web, it does not allow on-premise use. Users can manage project documents across the Office 365 ecosystem, schedule tasks, submit timesheets, as well as use integrations with PowerApps and Power BI. This plan is meant for those who work at the task level and removes much of the higher-level project and portfolio management tools. The entry level subscription is $10 per user per month.

Project Plan 3 vs Project Pro Online

Used to be: $30/month per user
Is now: $30/month per user

Previously known as the “Professional” tier, Project Plan 3 gives access to Project Online and you can use Project Online Desktop Application (Project Pro) for users looking for more functionality and flexibility than those on Plan 1. All the features of Plan 1 are included in Plan 3, but users can also create roadmaps to success, set tasks, add team members, and view the entire project from a top-down perspective. Plan 3 also allows for full integration with the Power Platform, including PowerApps, Power BI, and Microsoft Flow. While users can access Project Online and the Desktop Application with Plan 3, some functionality is restricted, like the ability for demand management and enterprise resource planning.

Project Plan 5 vs Project Premium

Used to be: $55/ month per user
Is now: $55/month per user

Formerly the “Premium” edition of Project, Plan 5 is Microsoft’s complete Project subscription package.
Project Plan 5 gives users access to the Project Online Desktop Application and is designed for Enterprise Project Management (EPM) type users. The Project Desktop Application allows Directors to monitor and manage their department’s complete roster of projects from the top down. Project Plan 5 allows Project Managers the most in-depth planning and management tools available. Users at this level can compile smaller projects into master projects, track project resource costs, compare planned budgets and resources to actual real-world data, and even set baselines to monitor performance against historical data. Plan 5 also opens additional functionality in Project Online not available in Project Plan 3.

Project Essentials

Project Essentials was an add on for Project Online which provided the most commonly used features for task-level workers, but required that you also have Project Online Professional or Premium to actually use Essentials. With Project for the web, Essentials has stayed, essentially, the same, providing team member functionality. Team members with Project Online Essentials can:

Only use a web based interface.
Update tasks, issues, and risks.
Submit timesheets
Share documents and collaborate with Microsoft Teams users.

If you have a Project Plan 3 or Plan 5 license, you can purchase Project Essentials for task workers.

How Do I Control Project Online Costs?

For clients that are currently contracted for Project Essentials, you will not feel any impact on pricing until you renew your contract. For Project Pro Online and Premium Online users there really is not much of a pricing impact. The real key to control costs is ensuring that you subscribe your end-users to the correct licensing tier. There is a big difference in costs between E1 and E5, and so often we see companies buying higher level licenses for users that only need E1s.

Understanding the hierarchy of Microsoft’s pricing scheme is essential to making a smart buying decision.

For task-level team members, Plan 1 should suffice. Users at this subscription level can communicate with each other, share files and resources, can monitor the timeline and task lists, as well as submit timesheets. While the feature list is limited, Plan 1 is designed to allow teams to complete their assignments without interrupting the planning process.

Project Managers will want at least Project Plan 3 since this tier makes the real planning tools available. Anyone who is active in the planning process of the project, assigns tasks, is authorized to make approvals or requests, or needs to closely monitor performance and resources, will require at least this level of subscription.

Project Plan 5 is designed for organizations that want Enterprise Project Management (EPM) functionality and who need full control of their project environment and portfolio. Not all users will require Plan 5, but users that are planning, tracking, and managing projects across a department or company likely will.

Where To Go From Here

Now that you have a better understanding of the Project platform, you can make an informed decision regarding the subscriptions your organization needs. If you are considering purchasing licenses for Microsoft Project and would like more information about negotiating a contract with Microsoft, our learning center is full of useful information for you to use, or you can reach out to us and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Moving to the Cloud? 5 Problems You’ll Need to Address

Posted on November 20, 2019June 18, 2024 by Ben Tight

Moving to the Cloud is tremendously useful for (significantly) reducing the number of servers required to run your environment efficiently. Salesforce, in their article Why Move To The Cloud? 10 Benefits Of Cloud Computing Operating, talks about some of the benefits of entering the Cloud which can include greater flexibility, excellent disaster recovery systems, increased collaboration and less money spent on hardware. However, before you get too excited to join the Great Cloud Migration, here are some important things to keep in mind before you make the transition.

Size Matters: Instances are Sized Correctly

In the past, when you wanted to digitize your work, a physical piece of hardware would arrive on-premise with a defined amount of storage to accommodate your license instance storage requirements.
If your operations only required 200 GB per server, it would then be a smart investment to purchase servers that offered 500 GB just in case your organization grew and you needed more storage as business boomed.

Purchasing storage in that manner made sense when you were dealing with a fixed, physical asset. Now, as organizations migrate to the Cloud, we are still seeing the tendency for purchasing more space than what is actually required in anticipation of future growth.

The Cloud isn’t a physical, fixed asset that you own with storage limitations attached to a piece of hardware. Welcome to a subscription-style storage solution with an a la carte menu that can be augmented or adjusted as needed – whenever it’s needed. If organizations only require 200 GB of space for nine months of the year, then get what you need for as long it’s needed and certainly hold off purchasing more than required in advance!

Assuming You Can Bring Your Own Licenses To The Cloud (BYOL)

If you assume you can bring your own licenses, then you are…not exactly wrong. For some software publishers, their contracts do allow you to move licenses from on-premise to the Cloud – but not always on a 1 to 1 instance basis. Other software publishers do not allow for license use rights to be transferred from on-premise to the Cloud – therefore putting you at risk of being in a non-compliance position with that vendor for the remainder of your contract term.

It is very important to do your due diligence in understanding your contract permissions and restrictions and plan the timing of a Cloud migration strategy accordingly. Not all vendors and products can move at the same time. Consider any applications that might carry sensitive data like patient records or customer credit card information, it is highly unlikely the publisher of that software will let you take that information anywhere near the Cloud. Such an act would prove a huge liability to you as well as to them since the Cloud has been known to have massive breaches in security.

For some publishers, you need to purchase specific Cloud licenses for a piece of software, and for others (to make things even more confusing) they offer a hybrid use right. There are also vendors like Microsoft, who will offer you the right to use their on-premise and SA licenses on their specific Cloud (Azure is one of Microsoft’s).

Service Provider Licensing Agreements are their own battle entirely. Service Provider Licensing Agreements permit a third-party vendor to provide the software to clients as a service. SPLAs usually acts as a monthly service provider and is flexible on a monthly basis. The problem is that these resellers are now also offering Cloud servers, but you will be on the liability-hook for anything that is running in your Cloud space.

Translation Error: Not Understanding How Your Licenses Will Change When Moving To The Cloud

When moving to the Cloud, many companies think that their licenses that they are currently using on-premise will seamlessly cover them for use in the Cloud. If you have 20 servers, you should be allowed that same amount of space on the Cloud, right? However, not all licenses are allowed to be used in the Cloud, so it’s important that you review your contracts and the use rights of all products you move to the Cloud to understand what you can and cannot do.

Otherwise, as you transition to the Cloud, you’ll come across a different licensing metric that will suddenly leave you with a few unlicensed servers or, even worse, in complete violation of the vendors licensing rules.

Let’s take Microsoft’s Azure Hybrid Benefits (AHB) as an example. AHB gives you some rights to use your licenses up in the Cloud, so purchasing it should mean that moving to the Cloud is made simple, but it’s not. You may be licensing your on-premise VMWare Servers with Windows DataCenter, and this would allow you to have an unlimited number of Virtual Windows Servers (VMs) on that single VMWare server.

However, if you have 20 VMs on the server, it might be easy to assume you can move all 20 VMs to Azure without paying for Windows Server Licenses since you have unlimited virtualization rights but this will leave you open for a big surprise. The truth is that the AHB only allows you to cover up to 2 VMS with the licenses that you are using to cover 20 VMs, leaving 18 VMs of Windows exposed to a license compliance gap.

Not Tracking Who Is Installing Software

Companies moving to the cloud often give their IT and development departments the ability to set up as many Cloud instances as they believe they may require, making it difficult to track who is doing what. Without any sort of administrative oversight, the potential to become exposed to disorganization can create a lot of unnecessary sprawl and forgotten instances left plugged into your environment that will be draining your budget quietly in the corner. In our many years of experience, we were once approached by a client whose software bills had spiked mysteriously seemingly overnight.

After doing our research, we traced the spending back to a single server belonging to a junior IT assistant. The junior IT resource, with a single click of a button, had accidentally turned on an unnecessary storage application that was now collecting data from the entire company. When the assistant had turned the storage app on, he had done so thinking that the product cost a little over a dollar a minute to run. Scaled up to the whole company though, that was an additional $4,000 a month, all because no one was monitoring what was being activated in the Cloud.

To make matters worse, according to Timothy Morrow from Carnegie Mellon University, the deletion of data is difficult to monitor on the Cloud. Once deleted, the process to ensure that it is completely removed and fully inactive varies from provider to provider. Make sure that whenever a project is set up in the Cloud, you have a system in place that can properly track it so that you can ensure it has been decommissioned once the project has concluded.

Not Monitoring Usage Regularly

This is another byproduct of not having any sort of administrative oversight around Cloud usage. If instances are established with no oversight they could be left running unknowingly. It’s important that you monitor the activities that occur in your space in the Cloud, that goes for usage as well as installation. Your financial department will be unable to calculate down to the number where and how all the organization’s money is being spent. They can only see the lump sum amounts that can be investigated if something is truly amiss. In any operation’s budget, Cloud expenses can come across as small expenses and can be easily overlooked until they expand into a big spending problem.

Potentially, the task of monitoring and authorizing installation use in the Cloud could be delegated to your Software Asset Manager. As companies are steadily picking up and moving their hardware to the Cloud, the same people that have to manage your software assets on-premise are going to have to learn to do the same on the Cloud. That way you can be sure you are only paying for what is being used.

While it may seem like everyone is heading for the Cloud, it is important to put proper planning/sizing and environment need analysis in advance of making the move. At Metrixdata360, we are quite familiar with these challenges your business will face as you move into the Cloud and as such, we have developed SAM tools that can help you counteract these challenges. We have a tool-set that can monitor your environment constantly to track a timeline of your usage so that you can see exactly where and when your money is being spent. Our main goal is to save you money and control your expenses.

For more information about our SAM services and how we can help you through your Cloud transition, click here.

How Much Does Hiring A Software Audit Consultant Cost?

Posted on November 19, 2019June 18, 2024 by Ben Tight

Software audit engagements with a SAM Expert consultant, it sounds quite fancy, technical and expensive. Before a long, labor-intensive audit, you’ll come to the part that most people think about all throughout the process, waiting, dreading and hoping the consultant has accurately assessed your environment and their calculations are correct.

In this blog we are going to be answering a few common questions many businesses have about hiring an audit consultant. Is it worth the investment in hiring a third party? How much does hiring a software audit consultant cost? What is the industry standard of pricing for a software audit consultant?

What Is The Value Of An Audit Consultant?

The main job of an auditing consultant is to get you organized and ready for your upcoming audit. Their primary focus will be to save you money, energy, and provide their expertise.

Save You Money

The financial penalties a company can suffer due to lack of preparation and organization can be absolutely crippling. According to the BSA Global Software Survey, the global rate of PC software that was installed without proper licensing in 2013 was at 43%, making it an issue that impacts many businesses worldwide. A software audit gone sideways can leave a company with a bill that is anywhere up to 100% of their annual software budget (for some companies that’s $50,000 and for other companies, that budget is millions of dollars). Your business has hardworking employees to keep on the payroll and it would be a rare thing if you just happened to have that kind of money in your back pocket. That’s the main reason people hire software auditing consultants, to analyze the data (freeing up your internal resources) and to get your bill down to the lowest possible number. If your environment data is accurately inventoried and organized, it’s possible to hand over your data for an audit and have your vendor respond “You owe much less than we initially thought.” What a great feeling! Software auditing consultants can potentially achieve that result for you.

Save You Resources

One of the advantages to having software auditing consultant as a part of your team is how much time and energy you save. Software auditors can come into a company like an impatient tornado, wanting data to be gathered yesterday. These are the type of tasks that you can’t pass off to your assistant, the data gathered will be highly sensitive and can only be done by high-paid employees from every department, from IT to finances, legal to security, all the way to upper management. Software auditing consultants can streamline a lot of the data collection process because what the software auditors will ask for and what they actually need to run the audit are not the same thing. It drains the time of your highest paid employees by sending them off on fool’s errands. So as to prevent valuable internal resources from being consumed with collecting required data, software audit consultants gather your data for you, using their own finely tuned SAM tools.

Provide You With Expertise

Another great advantage of deciding to have software audit consultants on your team is that this is what they do; they analyze data. Compare it to use-rights, look at product bundles and figure out how best to leverage what you have, as opposed to what you need in the near future. Software auditing consultants dive into the data and effectively achieve a strong push back position, getting rid of all shades of grey in audit assumptions with clear, concise and accurate license inventory used during negotiations. Consultants can also prevent overspending, showing you not just where you are underpaying in your licensing but also where you are overpaying and where your costs can be cut and put back into your budget. They are with you every step of the way, so you don’t have to worry about software vendors pushing you around. Instead, you’ll be able to push back.

Who Is A Consultant A Good Fit For?

Companies that need software audit consultants come from all branches of every industry and range in all sizes. If you’re a single location or if your company reaches a global scale, as long as you have software licenses and the need to manage those licenses, you could probably benefit from the help that software auditing consultants can offer. In a survey run by Gartner in 2013, 49% of respondents reported experiencing more than one audit in the previous year, so it’s not a question of if you’ll be audited… it’s when. However, if your company is small enough that it only has a few licenses to keep in order or if your IT department is running flawlessly and they have the situation perfectly under control, then you probably won’t need the services a software auditing consultant can offer.

How Much Does It Cost?

There are many factors that can affect the cost at the end of the day, so to give you one price to fit every case would be inappropriate and inaccurate. It also doesn’t help the situation that most consulting firms will keep their prices locked away to whip out only after you’ve contacted them for a quote and after a five-minute sales pitch about all their fine services. Here are the factors that can drive up your costs:

Size: How big is your organization (how many software users)? This will affect the volume of data a software consulting firm will have to go through.
Vendor Type: What type of vendor are you facing down? Some vendors like Microsoft, SAP, IBM, or Oracle will have a more labor-intensive process compared to vendors like Adobe.
Timeframe: What is the engagement’s estimated timeframe? Some audits (hopefully yours) take two to three months, others can drag on for the better part of a year.
Consultants Payment Method: The method by which software auditing consultants can charge you could be based on either a flat rate, a contingency rate or based on the number of working hours.

A Software Audit Consultant With MetrixData 360

At Metrixdata360, we want to see you succeed by saving time and money. If you are interested in a software audit our engagements typically range between $35,000-$100,000 depending on each client’s unique environment (as discussed there are many factors that contribute to cost). That being said, most of our projects fall into the $75,000 range. Our preference in pricing is usually at a fixed fee.

After reading this you may have realized that you need the expertise of an audit consultant to keep you company on track. We would be happy to help you take the next step toward hiring the perfect consultant for your project. Get a quote now.

SQL Server Licensing Price Increase

Posted on November 6, 2019August 6, 2024 by Ben Tight

We have done a significant amount of work with clients recently preparing them for the changes that Microsoft made to SQL Server licensing. Contrary to how Microsoft has positioned these changes in the market, most of our clients have faced price increases of 50% to 100% or more on their SQL Server licensing costs!

Don’t have time to read this right now?

SQL Server 2012 License Changes

During the launch of SQL Server 2012 we were given the impression that SQL was transitioning to Core based licensing to allow clients the opportunity to purchase based on capacity. In other words, as servers become more powerful and virtualization becomes more prevalent – clients can virtualize their SQL Servers and license based on capacity (Cores in use in Virtual environments) or license all cores in a server and have unlimited virtualization rights (requires SQL Enterprise with active Software Assurance). On the surface the concept seems to make sense and promises savings, but in practice it costs clients more for their SQL Server licensing.

Consider the following:

1 SQL Processor license = 4 SQL Core licenses

SQL Servers That Are Not Impacted

For older servers there is really no price difference as most of those servers are running less than 4 cores per processor (we will ignore the impact of SQL Enterprise Server/CAL model disappearing for now) and the price is the same. For more details on how SQL Server 2012 licensing works you can download the SQL 2012 Licensing Guide.

SQL Servers That Are Impacted

The challenge is that most new servers are running 6 or more cores per processor (many as high as 32+ cores per processor) and for each of these your licensing costs continue to multiple.

The only way to avoid this multiplying licensing cost effect of Cores is to consolidate and virtualize your SQL Servers. This is easier said than done as many of the applications that reside on these servers do not allow for deployment under these scenarios.

How Will SQL Pricing Changes Impact Users?

Let’s take a look at a hypothetical client (these clients exist out there):

Here is the scenario:

In 2nd year of an Enterprise Agreement
Currently have SQL Standard Servers, SQL Enterprise Server and CALs (for all users) on their EA
Have a SQL Standard Server Processor license but no SQL Enterprise Processor and no step-up option (to allow a move from SQL Standard to Enterprise)
Deploying a new “internal use only” SQL 2012 Enterprise that will be on a cluster of 2 servers with 32 cores each (total of 64 cores) deployed physically
Would normally purchase a SQL Enterprise Server and use all their CALs that they currently own to license this application

Worried that you are not licensing SQL Correctly?

Click here for information on our SQL Server License Optimization services.

SQL Enterprise Server CAL Eliminated

Upon the launch of SQL 2012 Microsoft eliminated SQL Enterprise Server/CAL option. The only way to purchase SQL 2012 Enterprise is via Core licenses.

SQL Server/CAL Licenses

Can’t this EA customer just use their SQL Server Enterprise Server CAL licenses? That’s a great question! Let’s look at what the SQL Server 2012 licensing rules state for this client:

“SQL Server Enterprise Edition Customers Licensed Under the Server+CAL Model
As of July 1, 2012, Microsoft will no longer be offering SQL Server Enterprise Edition under the Server+CAL license model. Current customers with active SA coverage for existing SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition server licenses should consider the following when transitioning to SQL Server 2012:
SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition server licenses will be available on price lists through June 30, 2012. EA and EAP customers with active agreements on this date can continue purchasing new licenses until the end of their current term.
After their current term expires, SA coverage can be renewed and maintained on SQL Server Enterprise Edition server licenses to provide continued access to SA benefits, including License Mobility rights and access to future releases.”

Sounds good so far, doesn’t it?

Lets continue:

“SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition software licensed under the Server+CAL model is restricted to only run on servers with a total of twenty cores or less: There are now two versions of SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition software: a server-based version and a core-based version. Customers must run the software version for which they are licensed.
For customers running SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition server-based software instances in a physical environment, that OSE is only permitted to access a maximum of twenty physical cores. A per instance technical limit is also enforced.”

WHAT!!!! They limit it to 20 Cores?????

Yes that is correct! This customer cannot license their new deployment via server/CAL even though they have an active EA because the server will use more than 20 cores (they are running 32 Core servers).

How Much Does SQL Server Cost Now?

Under an EA Level A they would have trued up 2 x SQL Server Enterprise for approximately $30,000 total (for the 2 licenses)

But instead:

Microsoft’s suggested solution is to sign an EAP Agreement for this purchase (positioning this as if the client will save 40% off list) as follows:

EAP Agreement – 32 x SQL Enterprise 2 pack Core licenses 3-year total approximately $480,000

The CIO is rightfully upset. His $30,000 budget was just blown by 16x for this purchase!

SQL 2014 License Change

With the launch of SQL 2014 Microsoft made another significant license change – they removed the right to only pay for the Active Server in an Active Passive Cluster. They instead added this into Software Assurance (SA) Benefits. So previously you only needed to license the Active side, regardless of where you had SA or not. This change forces you to purchase SA for the Active side of the cluster.

How To Avoid SQL Server Price Increases

The question one needs to ask is if SQL is giving the company a 16x better return than it would have before June 30th? Nope! Is Microsoft doing him a favor with the EAP offer? Nope! 16x over budget is 16x over budget. We’re not talking a 10% price increase here and this is hard dollars!

So what should this client do?

What should you do if you find yourself in this situation or a similar situation?

SQL Server License Optimization Services

SQL Server is one of Microsoft most confusing licensing models. It also is one of their most expensive products. This is why we developed a SQL Server Optimization Service. Utilizing our proprietary developed licensing tool, you can rest easily knowing that you are licensed in the most optimal manner. If you’d like to read more or the tool, SQL Optimization or if you are interested in having a call with one of our SQL Licensing experts please feel free to hit the talk with an expert button on the side to schedule a call.

Changes to Microsoft SA Benefits: Do They Impact You? (VIDEO)

Posted on November 1, 2019June 18, 2024 by Ben Tight

Why Microsoft Software Assurance Benefits Matter

Microsoft announced that they would be making more changes to their Software Assurance Benefits (SA Benefits) Program in September of 2019. This is not the first time (nor will it be the last time) that Microsoft has made changes to their program. In 2018 for example, they made a change to the Home Use Rights that were part of their SA Benefits.

Although the announcement was made already, the changes do not start to take effect until February 1st, 2020 with some of them having little to no impact on certain customers until January 1st, 2022.

Changes were made to 3 of the SA Benefits:

Deployment Planning Services
Training Vouchers
24×7 Problem Resolution Support

In this blog we are going to look at the recent changes Microsoft has announced to the SA Benefits Program. Specifically we will look at the changes to Deployment Planning Services, Training Vouchers and 24 x 7 Problem Resolution Support.

https://share.vidyard.com/watch/jGLUAhCGLRwDRzfpq2txMA?

How Do You get SA Benefits?

Customers who purchase Software Assurance through Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Programs receive various benefits based on what products they purchase Software Assurance (SA) on. The quantity of each benefit you earn is outlined in the Microsoft Product Terms.

Deployment Planning Services Microsoft will be retiring Deployment Planning Services (DPS) over the next 2 years and moving customers to their FastTrack Program. Microsoft is making this change to align themselves more closely with their goal of driving adoption of their cloud products (Microsoft 365, Azure and Dynamics 365). Many customers in the past took advantage of DPS, as it allowed them access to Microsoft Consulting or Partner Services to assist with deploying Microsoft technologies.

Key Dates For Changes To The DPS

- February 1, 2020 – all Cloud Services will be removed from the DPS catalog. If you want Cloud Services after this date, you will have to access them through the FastTrack program.

Note: Some customers elected to transfer their training vouchers in a 3:1 ratio to DPS credits. You will only have until this date to this after which you will no longer be able to trade in training vouchers. If you want to do this, it can be done via the Volume License Service Center Portal.

February 1, 2021 for customers who no longer receive additional DPS days for incremental purchases or true ups, it will also be the last day that new/renewing contracts can create DPS vouchers.
June 30, 2021 – is the last day to create a DPS voucher for you to use. The good news here is that you do have 180 days to use a voucher from the date from the date you create it (meaning the last redemption date is January 1, 2022).

Training Vouchers

Microsoft is evolving its training platform, both online and instructor led. Microsoft launched its online training portal Microsoft Learn, which is focused on instructor led training through certification and role-based curriculum.

Key Dates For Changes To The Training Vouchers Will Occur As Follows

February 1, 2020 – All Azure courses will be removed as well as the ability to transfer to DPS as mentioned above.
February 1, 2021 – Customers will no longer receive new training vouchers for incremental purchases or true ups. It will also be the last day that new/renewing contracts can create training vouchers.
June 30, 2021 – as with DPS this is the last day to create a training voucher with 180 days to redeem it.

24×7 Problem Resolution Support

This change may be the one where customers feel the most impact, as our clients tell us it is the most useful of all the Microsoft Software Assurance Benefits. So, what’s changing with Problem Resolutions Support (PRS)?

Customers will no longer receive a limited number of support incidents (how many you received was based on your spend, program, and the products that you purchased). Now, as long as your Software Assurance Spend is annually greater $250,000, you will receive a new basic support offering.
Customers who spend less than $250,000 per year and who do not have a support contract with Microsoft will be directed to partner support or can purchase Support Incidents from Microsoft for a cost.

What Is Basic Support?

Microsoft has defined this as support during business hours with a 24-hour response time goal (Note that it is not a response time, but a goal, so it may be faster or slower).

Premier and Unified Support

Our clients received the most benefit from PRS when they converted their support instances to Premier Support. This conversion allowed them to reduce the costs of their Premier or Unified Support contracts, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Microsoft has stated that after February 1, 2021, PRS credits will stop, but customers who have purchased Unified Support will receive credits at that time. They have not provided any details beyond this.

Key Dates For Changes To the Problem Resolution Support

February 1, 2021 – Convert the last of your PRS vouchers to Premier or Unified Support credit.
February 1, 2021 – Customers will no longer receive new PRS Credit.
February 1, 2021 – New support model launch (Basic Support and Credits for Unified Support)

Are you looking at an EA Renewal? Worried that these changes to SA Benefits will impact you? We know this can be stressful but it doesn’t have to be, that’s why we offer a Microsoft EA Renewal Negotiation Service. Head over to our services page to get the help you need.

If you have questions or concerns about how these changes will affect your organization, please feel free to reach out to us by clicking this box. We’re always happy to take five minutes to help you.

Microsoft Licensing Changes for Dedicated Hosts

Posted on August 15, 2019June 18, 2024 by Ben Tight

On August 1, 2019 Microsoft announced changes to their licensing rules for customers utilizing bring your own licenses (BYOL) on dedicated hosts in AWS, Google, Azure, and Alibaba Cloud environments. These licensing rule changes come into effect on October 1, 2019. While these changes will primarily impact Windows and SQL Servers – other Microsoft technology such as SharePoint or Skype could also be affected.

How could this impact you?

While relatively few customers could be impacted today, these licensing rule changes could shape a shift in strategies for how you deploy to these cloud environments in the future. The reality is that the change may give Microsoft a small licensing cost advantage over their competitors for cloud environments.

In the past, if you wanted to use licenses that you purchased – Microsoft offered two ways to do this:

Cloud Mobility Rights – that come with Software Assurance
Utilizing Dedicated Hardware Environments

Going forward, you will only be able to use License or Cloud Mobility Rights (if the license includes them – which SQL Server does) or Azure Hybrid Benefit (Windows Server and only available for use on Azure) to license Microsoft technology that is on third party cloud.

For more details you can check out:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/updated-licensing-rights-for-dedicated-cloud

Why does this matter?

Microsoft has embedded into their Product Terms, that Microsoft Volume Licenses (i.e. Those licenses you purchase through Enterprise Agreements, MPSA, Select etc.) are not allowed to be used in commercially hosted environments. Commercial hosted environments are typically multi-tenant environments where two or more unaffiliated companies share the same hardware infrastructure (which represents most Cloud implementations). This essentially meant that unless the licenses have Server Mobility rights (such as SQL Server), you had to purchase the licenses from the cloud provider vs. bringing your own licenses (BYOL).

What does this really mean?

Some organizations worked with AWS and purchased dedicated hardware. Since this hardware was not shared hardware, it was treated as not commercially hosted, meaning these customers could utilize a BYOL strategy. The nice thing about this BYOL strategy was that people may not have required Software Assurance at all and could utilize old perpetual licenses.

Microsoft has stated that licenses purchased prior to October 1, 2019 are exempt from the change. In order to take advantage of this though, it is recommended that you have a strong Software Asset Management practice in place.

Does this mean Azure will be cheaper than AWS?

Not necessarily. Licensing costs are only one factor when it comes to cloud computing costs. On the Azure cloud, Microsoft will attribute upwards of 40% of the costs of Windows Compute to Windows licensing costs. We just have not seen this to be the case for clients looking to move to AWS dedicated hardware. Most often the cost of the dedicated hardware outweighed the license savings to move to dedicated hardware. Clients often moved to dedicated hardware for other reasons such as security.

In order to determine costs, we recommend a cloud-sizing exercise where it can be assessed the costs to move to AWS and compare that to the costs to move to Azure. This exercise will be best done when we look at the costs over a 12+ month period vs. a one-time (one month) purchase.

If you’d like to discuss this in more depth, please feel free to contact us!

Microsoft Audit Penalties

Posted on July 2, 2019June 19, 2024 by Ben Tight

The High Cost Of Microsoft Audit Penalties

If stress kills, then receiving a notice with the opening line “Your organization has been selected to complete a Microsoft License Verification process” is practically lethal. As unpleasant as software audits are, if you have licenses with heavy-hitting vendors like Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle, it’s likely that software audits and compliance verification are just an unfortunate reality of business. So what are the Microsoft Audit fines and penalties that you could face when you receive an audit request?

At Metrixdata 360, one question that we hear brought up a lot is, “What will a Microsoft software audit or Microsoft SAM review cost my company at the end of the day?” This article will answer that question, focusing on where your expenses will accumulate the most in a poorly conducted Microsoft License audit.

For more information on how you can get a better handle of your software audit, please visit our article Microsoft Audit: 10 Powerful Tips to help you take back control.

Stay up to date on Microsoft’s Audit Penalties:

Download our Audit Penalties PDF:

Microsoft SAM Engagement vs. Software Audit

SAM Engagement	Software Audit
Medium of Delivery
You will be notified of a SAM review usually through an email.	You will be notified of an upcoming audit through a formal letter in the mail.
People Involved
You are allowed to conduct a SAM review internally, using your own SAM tools and led by your own SAM team. It can also be conducted by Microsoft’s SAM partner.	Microsoft will appoint a third-party auditor to conduct the process (this could be anyone from a specialized SAM partner to a large consulting firm like Deloitte or PwC).
Voluntary or Not?
Voluntary – sort of. Refusing to comply with a SAM review will likely result in being sent a software audit. In the minds of the software vendors, only those with something to hide refuse to be examined.	Not voluntary. You’re contractually obligated to comply with a Microsoft License Audit. Ignoring a software audit can result in legal action on the part of the software vendor.
Process
The process is similar for both a SAM review and a software audit. Scripts on your network will be run, your Active Directory Records will be accessed, and deployment data from your SAM tool will be pulled throughout the process, among other similar tasks. This will be done to try and determine your usage of Microsoft products and then compare that to the licenses you own to create an Effective (or Estimated) License Position (ELP). If there are any grey areas, the auditors will take the liberty of assuming the worst-case scenario to inflate your license gap, therefore the quality and completeness of your data can have a significant impact on the final cost of the process.
Final Penalties
At the time of this post, under a SAM, Microsoft will not charge you any penalties. You will simply place an order for any license shortfalls against the terms of the contract that you purchased a license under (Enterprise Agreement, MPSA, Open, etc). In addition, you are not responsible for the cost of the SAM engagement as Microsoft funds the selected partner.	Under an Audit, you need to read the terms of Microsoft’s rights to validate compliance in your contract to understand what the Audit Penalties are. If you are an Enterprise Agreement or an MPSA customer, this is typically found in your Business Agreement. It may differ depending on your region and the version of contracts you are under, but typically customers are subject to the Audit Penalty of paying the list price as well as an additional 5% penalty for all products found unlicensed. Any historical or contractual discounts the customer usually benefited from will not be applied. Customers will also be expected to pay for the auditors’ fees if they are found to be out of compliance by 5% or greater. How the 5% is determined varies but it is typically calculated based on the number of licenses owned compared to licenses required. You will need to read your agreement to understand what the exact terms of an audit with Microsoft are and what Audit Penalties you may be responsible for.

What are the Biggest Costs in a Microsoft Compliance Verification Audit?

Now that we can clearly distinguish a software audit from a SAM review, let’s talk about a few of the most common areas where expenses can accumulate. Settlements, true-ups, and wasted resources can prove the biggest detriment to a company’s license compliance during an audit. Let’s look at them one by one to answer why that is:

Settlements

Settlements occur at the end of the software audit and determine the fine that the company will pay for being out of compliance.

If it is discovered that the company attempted to hide things from the auditor during the process, then the company can be held in breach of their contract, which can worsen the situation. A study conducted in 2013 by KPMG found that 52% of companies reported that the losses they had incurred through unlicensed software amounted to 10% of their total yearly revenue.

True-Ups

True-ups are a lump sum payment that companies produce after a set period of time has elapsed (such as a year or three years) to the software vendor within 60 days of the date making the anniversary of the initial purchase of the software.

The payment is intended to cover all the expenses for another term, but it will be inflated to accommodate any unlicensed software that was discovered during the SAM review or audit. In a SAM review, the discounts can still be applied for purchasing new licenses. However, the reason why true-ups can prove so detrimental in a software audit is because the discounts that companies would have otherwise had with the software vendors are no longer applied.

Suddenly having to pay for software products at full price can prove a huge expense for companies to pay. After a software audit, a survey conducted by Flexera, with input from IDC, found that a company with a revenue of 50 million can expect a true-up cost of roughly $263,000. Meanwhile, a company with $4 billion in revenue could expect a true-up cost of roughly $1.6 million.

Wasted Resources

One of the least known costs of a software audit is the loss of company time and resources. Software contracts can include clauses that state the “busy season” for a company and therefore a time when the company cannot be audited. When a software audit does arrive, it can still disrupt otherwise productive business hours. Workers often find their projects delayed or rearranged in the wake of an audit, while high-paid IT staff are often sent off to run fruitless errands at the software auditor’s bidding. To make matters worse, software audits can last anywhere from six months to multiple years.

Facing a Software Review or Microsoft Audit and Need A Guiding Hand?

Understanding where a SAM review or an audit can cost you the most money is important if you’d like to be able to prepare for each.

At MetrixData360, we would suggest that companies perform a self-assessment at least once a year to understand what their license position is. By doing this, you will have your own data to counter the auditor’s findings.

Over the years Metrixdata 360 has successfully defended companies from nearly every industry and saved them millions of dollars in heavy fines. If you’d like to know more about how Metrixdata 360 can save you money, check out our Audit Service page.

Book a Meeting with Your Office 365 Licensing Expert

Oracle Java Licensing Changes

Posted on June 5, 2019June 19, 2024 by Ben Tight

Java Licensing Update

Did you know Oracle changed the rules on Java licensing earlier this year and that, as a result of this change, many companies may be exposed to an audit by Oracle? That’s the what all the experts are out there claiming, that you may have 100’s of thousands if not millions of dollars in exposure to unlicensed Java use based on these changes.

Before I get into the 5 Simple tricks to perform a Java Audit, let me tell you… based on experience from the Java Audits that MetrixData 360 have conducted to-date, this doomsday financial ticking time bomb is neither accurate nor true. Yes, you could potentially owe a million dollars, but our average findings indicate that the amount of unlicensed Java our clients had exposure on was typically less than $50,000. You can breathe a little easier now!

So why are these Oracle License and Audit experts saying you could owe millions? The reason is simple. These “experts” are lacking important information to make these claims. I might go even as far to say, many of them don’t have the expertise to even advise you on what level of licensing you require. They are making these claims because traditional Oracle licensing is complicated and confusing. The environments that Oracle run in are large, diverse and expansive. And I agree with those statements. A traditional Oracle audit is expensive and complicated.

Oracle Java however, is deployed primarily in your desktop environment. Most Oracle Licensing and Audit experts don’t have experience with desktop environments…. And yes, I do know that Java can be installed in server environments. But quite honestly? An Oracle Java Audit is more like a Microsoft Office audit (on both desktops and servers) than it is like an Oracle Server Audit.

5 Tips for Navigating An Oracle Audit

So let me now tell you the 5 incredibly simple things you need capture to conduct a successful (for you) Java Licensing Audit and determine just how much (or should I say how little?) you may owe Oracle today.

#1 – Understand Your Oracle Deployments

Visualizing and validating your deployment data is one of the most important components to understanding your license position. Unfortunately, capturing this data accurately is arguably one of the most frustrating things you can go through. With multiple data sources, rows and rows of data that needs to be stitched together and IT departments that are unaware of all the data that is required – this process is an exercise in frustration for every client we’ve ever worked with.

That’s why MetrixData 360 developed a tool to do it for you! A great way to understand your deployment data is to utilize a simple data visualization and inventory normalization tool. Let me introduce you to our custom-developed tool – SAM Compass. This tool works with your inventory tools (SCCM, Altris, LanDesk etc.) to easily (and accurately!) bring together the data you need in a simple, workable, format; so, you can easily apply software licenses to your deployment in the most optimal manner.

#2 – Determine What is Licensable Today and What is Not!

The key to keeping your costs down is understanding not all of Java is licensable today (or maybe ever). When it comes to your deployment data, you need a normalized list of Software that is Auditable today. While this may be easier said than done, our SAM Compass tool has been developed to make this easier.

#3 – Understand Where Java is Bundled (Typically in Server product)

Java is included for free as a restricted use product with many applications. Weblogic, PeopleSoft, SAP and IBM all have Java bundled into their products that may not require a license.

#4 – Review Your Use of Oracle Java on your Desktops

Many times, Java was included on the desktop for browser applications. You need to review your use of these products and determine if you need to continue. You will also want to look at other options (that are still free) such as OpenJDK, as a replacement.

#5 – Hire Java Licensing Experts

If you’ve spent any time trying to understand all the nuances of Java licensing, you know how complicated it is. Just do a pull of Oracle Java Titles and try and figure out which ones require a license today vs. which ones don’t. It’s very confusing. There are experts out there that can help you (cost effectively) determine your compliance position (and provide you with valid recommendations for the future). MetrixData 360’s SAM Compass tool and our team of experts can save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

If you’d like more information on Java Licensing – download our FAQ document or send us an email at: info@metrixdat360.com to book a demo of our SAM Compass tool for Oracle Java Assessments.

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Oracle Java Audits – Are You at Risk?

Posted on January 21, 2019June 19, 2024 by Ben Tight

Recently Oracle announced massive changes to how Oracle Java is licensed. These changes impact everything from how Java is licensed to how the patches and update system works.

Given that Oracle has a history of aggressive audit practices and Java is everywhere, many organizations are very concerned. Companies are worried about what’s deployed on their networks and the possibility of a non-compliant finding worth potentially millions of dollars.

We have not seen official Oracle Java audits yet but given Oracle’s history with auditing it’s only a matter of time before they move to monetize Java. You don’t want to learn about a licensing gap during an audit.

We recommend getting ahead of the issue by performing a self-assessment of your environment to determine your potential Java licensing exposure. The challenge is that licensable Java titles are not always easily identified, and it can be time consuming.

Introducing MetrixData 360’s SAM Compass for Java!

Sam Compass for Java takes the guesswork and data crunching away from you and provides you with a team of licensing experts who quickly get you actionable data so you can make informed decisions.

We are your Software Asset Management experts and we will quickly and efficiently:

Collect and normalize Oracle Java deployment/entitlement data
Identify licensable Java titles
Provide you with an Effective Licence Position
Provide gap mitigation recommendations

Don’t wait on Oracle to call! Be proactive and take advantage of our introductory pricing by calling or emailing us and mention the promo code “Java”.

Contact us at info@metrixdata360.com

or call us at 888-978-5129 to learn more.

Software Management – Take Software Licensing Seriously

Posted on September 4, 2018June 11, 2024 by Ben Tight

If you are a CFO software management is critical to controlling costs.

CFO Software Management: The reality of the situation

As the CFO, you have the mandate to protect the assets of your company, working closely with your legal team to ensure you are free from lawsuits and audits, while maximizing ROI in any venture your company takes on. You work tirelessly to Protect your organization, board and shareholders from unforeseen financial pitfalls. Risk Management has always fallen on the shoulders of the CFO, and that’s especially true when it comes to Software Management. If you are a CFO, Software Management is becoming a way to drastically reduce financial exposure and control and reduce overall spend. Managing a company’s Software Assets has traditionally fallen in the lap of the I.T. team. Sure, there might be some oversight from the CFO but for the most part, Software Asset Management flies under the radar of a company’s Executive team. One fact that often gets over-looked is a strategy to understand and develop a Mature Software Asset Management (SAM) practice. Having a handle on SAM is one of the best and easiest ways for a company to drastically reduce costs and start to really drive ROI from the massive investments put into software. It is very likely that CFO software management in most companies could reduce overall cost associated with software by as much as 30% or even more when using the right approach.

Did you know that major Software Publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, and Oracle are targeting their customer base with a Software Audit every 18-36 months?

I’ve written about this in the past. It’s no secret that Software Publishers are using the Audit as a revenue generating tool.

Click here to read – What triggers a Microsoft Audit

Why wouldn’t they? They know most business do not have an accurate handle on their software deployments and don’t truly understand use rights. Software licensing is complex. For almost every CFO, software management in general is not widely understood. As technology shifts, software publishers constantly change and update use rights to protect their recurring revenue streams. Although I’m sure none would ever admit it, I believe it’s also to add additional complexity that often leads to non-compliance. Unfortunately for any business, an audit often means countless working hours wasted, gathering and compiling data for the auditor, which often turns into hefty fines and/or penalties. This is an expense that is almost never budgeted for. Money that could be used to grow and improve the business. Instead, that money goes to a Software Publisher that already makes a pretty penny off your business. Case in point, MetrixData 360 recently worked with a client that was found to have a $2.5 MILLION compliance gap. After a rigorous defense, the client paid just shy of $200,000 USD. While this can be seen as a victory to most, a proactive SAM strategy would have saved them having to pay out at all.

Did you know, that over 80% of Small/Medium businesses rely of Excel Spreadsheets to manage their Software License deployments?

Nostalgia is sometimes a good thing (when it comes to Atari video games and Star Trek re-runs), but when it comes to CFO software management, it’s time to move away from the old approach, and adopt new technologies. Technology is the future, and the future is NOW! The technology currently exists to get a near real-time update of potential exposure and risks. In the past, a company would often wait for a Software Audit, Contract Renewal or True-Up to understand their software inventory and deployments. By that time, it’s too late. Your company will over-spend when purchasing additional licenses, not to mention the Fines and Penalties that could be levied if any shortfall is found. There are SAM tools in the market-place right now, and while many are good, the clear majority fall short.

Click Here to read why Software Asset Management Tools Are So Bad At Software Asset Management —

Sometimes these tools are complex and difficult to install. Many tools don’t paint a complete and concise picture of all deployments and simply do not have the deep logic to normalize that data into usable outputs. The key really is combining tools and processes into one powerful solution; a solution like SAM Compass. SAM Compass is a managed service offering from MetrixData 360 which provides you with a turnkey solution to Software Asset Management. You get access to cutting edge SAM tools, proven processes and top SAM experts. You get to free yourself up to do whats really important in your business while being confident that you have SAM under control.

When it comes to Software Asset Management, you can’t afford to be Reactive.

Today, for the Proactive CFO, it is vitally important to have near real-time, accurate data at their finger tips. Automation is key, and by leveraging the proper tools and processes that ensure an accurate understanding of all owned software licenses and deployments, you safeguard your business from inflated costs and penalties. Gone are the days when managing licenses using tools like Excel was sufficient. You will never truly free yourself of exorbitant and unexpected costs until you move from a Reactive stance to a Proactive Process! Leveraging a team of experts, like the professionals at MetrixData 360 can be the ace in your pocket. Utilizing a Tool or Managed Service Offering; like SAM Compass will give you the visibility you need to be proactive and successful at a fraction of the cost.

There’s no doubt, the role of CFO is challenging and appears to be growing ever more complex. Like we have all heard a million times; “work smart, not hard”. That saying has never been more applicable. A relatively small investment in the CORRECT tool and process, can protect the assets of your company; a key pillar in any CFO’s mandate!