Stop Paying for Third Party Duplication

Turns out your “niche” technology problem isn’t niche anymore.

Organizations often mistakenly believe they need third-party tools to meet security, compliance, and collaboration requirements—especially in GCC and GCC High environments.

That is an outdated belief.

In fact, Microsoft 365 has evolved into a comprehensive platform for Zero Trust security, compliance mandates, secure collaboration, identity management, and compliance. Yet many organizations continue to pay for overlapping SaaS tools because their licensing strategy hasn’t kept pace with Microsoft’s capabilities.

The result is widespread multi-licensing—and unnecessary cost.

The Real Problem: Outdated Assumptions

Most over-licensing isn’t caused by poor decision-making. It’s caused by assumptions that were once true, but are no longer accurate, including:

• Microsoft cannot meet public sector or DIB security requirements
• GCC High limits modern collaboration
• Compliance requires best-of-breed third-party tools
• Microsoft licensing is too complex to optimize

In reality, Microsoft 365 has evolved far beyond email and collaboration—it now delivers tightly integrated, enterprise-grade capabilities across:

• Identity and access management
• Endpoint and device protection
• Data loss prevention and information protection
• eDiscovery and records management
• Secure collaboration across commercial and GCC High tenants

The Hidden Problem: SaaS Sprawl and Licensing Bloat

Over the years, most organizations adopted a patchwork of security tools, communication platforms, identity products, endpoint solutions, and archiving systems. Individually, these tools seem manageable, but at scale, this creates:

• Redundant licensing and overlapping capabilities
• Acquisition for perceived niche or perceived feature requirements
• Higher recurring costs
• Fragmented identity and access management
• User experience inconsistency
• Security gaps and compliance challenges

And as Zero Trust and compliance requirements expand, these mismatched systems can work against an organization’s compliance goals.

Why Microsoft Licensing Optimization Matters Now

Many organizations simply haven’t revisited their licensing strategy in years, leading to a buildup of redundant licenses, fragmented tools, and higher operational costs. However, those that reassess and optimize their licensing approach can often:

• Eliminate third-party tools replaced by Microsoft-native capabilities
• Reduce risk by centralizing identity and security
• Streamline compliance through consolidated governance
• Improve user experience across communication and collaboration
• Reclaim budget for modernization initiatives

And in many cases, the missing piece is simply a clear roadmap.

A Real-World Microsoft Cloud Licensing Optimization Example: $9.78M in Annual Savings

In a recent licensing optimization engagement, a large research institution with more than 10,000 users needed help managing multiple environments. Years of decentralized tool purchasing resulted in redundant contracts across communication, security, endpoint management, and archiving.

Planet performed a Microsoft Cloud Licensing Optimization (MCLO) assessment to determine the best path forward—evaluating licensing options, mapping Microsoft-native capabilities to third-party tools, modeling financial impacts, and designing a five-quarter implementation roadmap.

Results of the MCLO Assessment

The institution found it could retire more than a dozen third-party applications, including Zoom, Okta, Proofpoint, Slack, Box, and multiple endpoint tools—replacing them with Microsoft-native features already included in G5 RAMP licensing and unlocking:

• $9.78M in savings every year starting in year two
• A three-year net profit of $6.6M
• A payback period of under two years
• Stronger alignment to compliance mandates through Purview and Defender
• A unified collaboration experience with Teams
• Reduced complexity in identity and endpoint management

What This Means for Other Organizations

This institution isn’t an outlier—it’s an example of what’s possible when organizations step back and evaluate their licensing position and required services.

If your agency is using multiple point solutions for security, collaboration, identity, or compliance, you may be:

• Paying for capabilities you already own
• Adding unnecessary complexity
• Creating gaps in your Zero Trust architecture
• Slowing your journey toward compliance mandate alignment
• Missing out on operational efficiencies

As demonstrated above, the opportunity to simplify and save is often much larger than expected.

How to Get Started

An MCLO engagement with Planet typically includes:

• A complete inventory of current tools and contracts
• Mapping of Microsoft-native capabilities to third-party products
• An analysis of multiple licensing scenarios
• A financial model showing cost, savings, and long-term ROI
• A phased roadmap for implementation
• Options to leverage Microsoft funding programs

Even small optimizations can generate significant long-term savings.

Final Thought: The Value Is Already There—It Just Needs to be Extracted

Microsoft licensing is complex, and most organizations don’t have the time or resources to constantly evaluate every option. But the payoff can be substantial—financially, operationally, and strategically.

If you’re looking for ways to reduce costs, improve security, streamline governance, and simplify your IT ecosystem, the fastest path may be optimizing what you already own.

Want to explore your potential savings? Contact Planet Technologies at [email protected] to get started.