Trusted by organisations like yours
Most organisations are paying for licences nobody is using
Microsoft licensing is complicated on purpose and it changes constantly. Plans get renamed, inclusions move between tiers, new products arrive with their own prerequisites, and add-ons overlap with things already bundled. Keeping up with it is a job, and in most organisations it is nobody's job. So the licence position drifts. Somebody leaves and the seat stays assigned. A team gets upgraded for one feature and nobody checks whether the rest of the organisation needed the same tier. An add-on is bought that a plan already includes. A renewal arrives, the numbers look roughly like last year's, and it gets approved. Valto manages Microsoft licensing and Azure CSP as a service: procurement, renewals, assignment and administration, with periodic review against what is actually being used. The review is the part that finds money, and it is the part almost nobody does, because it takes somebody who knows both your tenant and Microsoft's current commercial terms. We will also tell you when to spend more. Sometimes the right answer genuinely is a higher tier, because three add-ons cost more than the plan that includes them. What we will not do is let a renewal go through on last year's numbers because nobody looked.
What we do with your licensing
Most organisations start with a review, then decide how much of the ongoing administration they want to hand over.
Licence review and optimisation
We reconcile what you are paying for against what is assigned and what is actually being used, and identify unassigned seats, leavers still licensed, duplicated add-ons and tiers that do not match usage. You get the findings with a value attached to each.
Right-tier analysis
Whether you are on the correct plan, in either direction. Add-ons purchased separately frequently cost more than the tier that includes them, and equally, organisations pay for a premium tier estate-wide when only one department needs it.
Renewal management
We track your anniversary dates, review the position before the renewal rather than after it, and handle the commercial terms so a renewal is a decision rather than an automatic continuation.
CSP and Azure subscription management
Procurement, provisioning, billing and day-to-day administration through the Cloud Solution Provider programme, including Azure subscriptions, with a single point of contact for licensing questions.
Copilot and new product licensing
Working out who actually needs a licence for a new product, what it requires to work properly, and whether a phased rollout costs less than an organisation-wide purchase. This is currently the most common question we are asked.
Frontline, shared and non-profit licensing
Where a substantial part of your workforce is shift-based, site-based or does not have a desk, they may not need the same licence as head office. Charities and non-profits are frequently entitled to pricing they are not claiming.
How the licence review works
Your tenant, not your invoice
We reconcile your billing against what is actually assigned and, where the data supports it, what is actually being used. That includes unassigned seats, licences on disabled or departed accounts, duplicated add-ons, tier mismatches and products nobody has signed into. An invoice tells you what you bought. Only the tenant tells you whether it was needed.
Why work with Valto on licensing?
Findings with a number against them
Every item in the review carries an annual value and a note on whether it can be acted on now or at a term boundary. A finding you cannot act on until March is not a saving you can bank in November.
We review the tenant, not the invoice
An invoice tells you what you bought. Assignment and sign-in data tell you whether it was needed, and that is where the difference between the two turns up.
Microsoft depth across the whole estate
We hold every Microsoft Solution Partner designation across all pathways, so a licensing recommendation is made by people who know what the products actually do rather than what the comparison table says.
Renewals reviewed before they happen
We track anniversary dates and review the position in advance, so a renewal is a decision rather than a continuation nobody examined.
WHAT WE TYPICALLY FIND
What tends to be sitting on the invoice
Almost none of this is carelessness. Licensing sits between IT and finance and is usually owned by neither.
- Licences paid for and assigned to nobody
- Licences still assigned to people who have left, sometimes for years
- A premium tier applied estate-wide when one department needed it
- The wrong tier in the other direction, where separate add-ons cost more than the plan that bundles them
- Charities and non-profits paying commercial rates they are entitled not to pay
- Anniversary dates nobody tracks, so decisions get made after the window closes
What a license review changes
The point is not to spend as little as possible. It is to stop paying for things nobody is using and to be on the right tier for what you actually do.
How we deliver licensing work
From reconciling what you pay against what you use, through to a managed licensing position with renewals reviewed before they happen.
1Reconcile
What you pay against what is assigned
We compare billing to assignment and, where available, to actual usage. This produces the baseline and usually the first findings.
2Analyse
Tier, overlap and entitlement
Whether each population is on the right plan, whether add-ons duplicate something already included, and whether you are entitled to pricing you are not claiming, including frontline and non-profit.
3Report
Findings with values and timing
Each finding with an annual value, and a clear statement of whether it can be acted on now or at a term boundary. You get the position whether or not we do anything further.
4Act
Adjust, and time it to the terms
Assignment corrections, tier changes and cancellations executed with the term windows and renewal dates in mind, so a change is made when it can actually take effect.
5Manage
Renewals, changes and re-review
Ongoing administration, anniversary tracking, and periodic re-review as headcount and product use change. Licensing drifts continuously, so a one-off correction has a shelf life.
We're one of the UK's few Microsoft partners to hold all Microsoft Solution Partner designation badges, across all Solution Partner designation pathways. For licensing that matters because a recommendation is made by people who know what the products actually do, not just what the comparison table says: whether the security capability in a higher tier would genuinely get used, whether an add-on duplicates something already included, and whether a product licensed organisation-wide is one anybody will open. Whether you're approaching a renewal, sizing a Copilot rollout, or simply suspect you are paying for more than you need, we start by reconciling what you pay against what you use.
WHY ORGANISATIONS CHOOSE VALTO
CONNECTED, ACROSS MICROSOFT
A licensing decision is a capability decision
Moving between tiers is not a procurement question. E5 brings the Defender stack, Entra ID P2 and Purview with it, which means a licensing conversation is frequently a security conversation that nobody has framed that way. Equally, a tier bought for one feature can leave an organisation paying for capability nobody configures. Valto brings together expertise across Microsoft 365, Azure, security, data and Copilot, so a licensing recommendation comes with a view on whether the capability inside it would actually get used. Where a higher tier is worth it, we will say so and then help you use what it includes. Where it is not, we will say that instead. The result is a licence position that reflects what your organisation does, rather than what somebody bought during a project three years ago.
The team driving you forward
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Questions, answered plainly
Practical answers on what a review finds, why we would tell you to buy less, when changes can actually be made, and how Copilot licensing works.
FREE LICENCE REVIEW
Find out what you are paying for and not using
Whether you have a renewal coming, are sizing a Copilot rollout, suspect you are on the wrong tier, or simply want somebody to reconcile the invoice against the tenant, start with a review.
Findings with a number against each
Annual value on every item, and a clear note on whether it can be acted on now or at a renewal.
We will tell you to buy less
We earn margin on licences and we would still rather you found out from us than at your renewal.