A free Microsoft EA assessment is the right starting point if you are about to negotiate a renewal, you have an audit notification on your desk, or you are sitting on a Copilot or Azure commitment decision that you do not trust the Microsoft account team to advise you on honestly. The assessment is built around the buyer-side question Microsoft will not answer: where is the actual exposure in this engagement, and what is the defensible path to a lower-risk, lower-cost commercial close.
What the free Microsoft EA assessment covers
The 30-minute scoping call is a working partner conversation, not a pitch. Depending on where you are in the cycle, the partner will walk through any of the following with you. You pick the priorities; the partner brings the buyer-side reads from comparable engagements.
EA renewal exposure
Where Microsoft’s account team is likely to anchor on the first proposal — Copilot attach, E5 or E7 Frontier Suite step-up, blanket attach assumptions — and what the buyer-side counter looks like.
EA tier collapse
If the seat count drifted near a band boundary, the EA tier collapse may apply at renewal. We read your seat path and call out whether the tier-reversal argument is in scope.
July 2026 lock-in
If your renewal effective date sits near the July 2026 price increase, we walk the pre-reset price-lock options and the contractual language to file in the first counter.
Audit defense posture
If a Verification or SAM letter has landed, we read the notification, the named verification partner, and the contractual instrument and tell you whether the audit can be defended at the scoping stage. The audit-help crisis line sits behind this.
Copilot rollout reality
Whether the proposed Copilot attach is defensible against actual deployment readiness, what phasing curve looks reasonable, and where the anniversary true-down rights have to be drafted into the EA contract language.
Azure MACC honesty test
Whether the MACC commitment is sized to your actual run-rate or to Microsoft’s growth target. We walk the consumption shape, the MACC growth-discount model, and the burn-down posture.
Unified Support reset
Whether the Unified Support proposal is a Performance-band step-up disguised as a renewal, and what the third-party fallback economics look like. The 2026 Unified Support pillar sits behind this.
MCA-E transition
Whether the proposed transition from EA to MCA-Enterprise is genuinely better for the buyer or whether the EA-side commercial protections are quietly being unwound. We read the contractual delta.
How the free EA assessment runs
Form submission · same-day response
The form above goes directly to the partner intake address. No marketing automation, no sales-development screen. Same-day acknowledgement Monday through Friday US Eastern, with a calendar link for the call within 24 to 72 hours.
Pre-call prep · the partner reads what you sent
The senior partner who will run the call reads the form, looks at the named LSP and the contractual instrument, and pulls comparable-engagement reads from the firm’s case archive before the call. If you have a Microsoft proposal you want eyes on ahead of the call, attach it and we read it first.
30-minute working call
A working conversation, not a pitch. The partner walks the buyer-side reads on your situation, calls out the two or three highest-leverage moves you can make in the next 30 to 60 days, and answers the questions you bring. If a question is outside our scope, we say so and point you to who is best placed to answer.
Honest follow-up · fixed-fee proposal or no proposal
If the call surfaces material EA exposure that justifies a paid advisory engagement, a fixed-fee proposal is in your inbox within five business days. Named-partner accountability. No contingency, no success fees, no Microsoft fees, no LSP referral fees. If the call shows the public resources cover your situation, we say that and point you to the right pillar guides, tools, and pages on this site.
Mid-market financial services buyer · 4,200 EA seats · renewal at T-7 months. The buyer requested a free EA assessment after the LSP delivered a renewal proposal that bundled 100% Copilot attach, E5 across the entire seat base, and a Unified Support Performance-band step-up — total contract value $17.4M over 3 years. The 30-minute partner call flagged the three highest-leverage counters: Copilot phasing to 18/35/52, persona-segmented SKU mix replacing the E5 blanket, and a Unified Support hold at current tier. The buyer engaged the firm two weeks later on a fixed-fee renewal engagement. EA closed at $11.9M (31.6% reduction) with anniversary true-down rights and price-protection clauses on the Copilot uplift. The free assessment paid for the engagement many times over before the contract signature.
What the free EA assessment is not
To be clear about the boundaries of the offer so you can decide whether to file the form or not:
- Not a sales call. We do not run a qualification gauntlet, we do not push a paid engagement on the call, and we do not follow up with a six-touch nurture sequence. One call, one honest follow-up.
- Not a downloadable report. We do not gate a generic PDF behind a lead form. The free EA assessment is a live working conversation with a senior partner.
- Not a co-sell with an LSP. We do not co-engage with Licensing Solution Providers. We do not take LSP referral fees. The advice is independent.
- Not a research interview. The call is for buyer-side review only. We do not record, do not transcribe for publication, and do not use your situation as research material without a separate explicit consent.
- Not for vendors or competitors. The free EA assessment is for end-user enterprise buyers of Microsoft licensing. We do not run free assessments for Microsoft partners, resellers, or competitor advisory firms.
Why an independent buyer-side assessment matters
The structural problem with relying on Microsoft account-team advice or LSP advice on an EA renewal is incentive misalignment. Microsoft’s account team is internally compensated on the renewal expansion line, not on the buyer’s long-term cost outcome. The LSP earns Microsoft Partner Network rebates and channel incentives that pay out when the buyer licenses more, not less. The Big Four firm sometimes attached to the engagement is auditing for Microsoft, not advising for the buyer. The only category in this market with no Microsoft revenue exposure is independent buyer-side advisory.
The independent advisor vs LSP comparison and the independent vs Microsoft-aligned advisor comparison walk through this in detail. The short version: every other category in the room is paid by Microsoft or paid on the buyer signing more, not less. The free EA assessment is a 30-minute working call with the only category that is not.
Frequently asked questions
Is the free Microsoft EA assessment really free?
Yes. The 30-minute scoping call is free. We do not require credit card details, do not gate a downloadable report, and do not require a contract before the call. If we identify material EA exposure that justifies a paid advisory engagement, we say so on the call and follow up with a fixed-fee proposal within five business days. If we do not, we say that too and point you to the public resources that fit your situation.
Who runs the call?
A senior partner from the advisory team runs every free EA assessment call personally. No junior associate triage, no business-development screen, no qualification gauntlet. The partner who would lead a paid engagement is the partner you brief in the free assessment.
What do I need to bring to the call?
As much or as little as you have. The most useful artifacts are: a copy of the most recent Microsoft EA or MCA-E proposal you have received, a count of your current EA seats by SKU, the renewal effective date, the named LSP, and any Microsoft Verification or audit notification correspondence. If you have none of these, the call still works — we can scope the engagement against what you do know.
Are you affiliated with Microsoft?
No. Microsoft Negotiations is 100% independent and 100% buyer-side. We take no Microsoft Partner Network rebates, no Licensing Solution Provider referral fees, and no Microsoft channel incentives of any kind. Our only compensation is the fixed retainer paid by the buyer. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Microsoft Corporation.
How fast can you get a call on the calendar?
Same-day response on the free EA assessment form Monday through Friday US Eastern. Typical first call is on the calendar within 24 to 72 hours of the form submission. Audit-defense crisis line is faster — same-day call when the form indicates a live audit notification.
Will you sell my data or add me to a marketing list?
No. The form goes to our internal partner intake address, not to a marketing automation platform. We send a single follow-up email confirming the call and zero unsolicited marketing. We do not sell, share, or trade contact data with any third party.