UAE Construction Firm Uses Independent Advisor to Reduce EA Spend by 19%
Industry: Construction/Engineering • Location: United Arab Emirates
Challenge: A leading construction and engineering firm in the UAE faced escalating costs as its Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) renewal approached. The company relied on Microsoft 365 for project collaboration and Azure cloud services for design simulations and data storage.
However, over the years, its license usage had grown haphazardly, with over-provisioned user licenses and underutilized Azure resources driving up costs. The firm wanted to avoid overspending in the new EA term and sought to optimize its licenses without disrupting ongoing projects.
The company engaged an independent licensing advisor to thoroughly analyze its Microsoft deployments and “optimize license allocations to eliminate waste” before renegotiating the EA.
Solution: Working closely with the advisor, the construction firm undertook a comprehensive review of its Microsoft usage:
- Usage Audit: The team reviewed all Microsoft 365 accounts and Azure services to identify unused or duplicated licenses. Dozens of inactive Office 365 accounts and idle Azure VMs were uncovered, and these were promptly earmarked for removal or downsizing. This audit provided a clear baseline of actual needs versus what was being paid for.
- License Optimization: The advisor recommended tailoring license types to each user’s needs. Many employees had been assigned expensive Microsoft 365 E5 licenses despite only using core Office applications. The firm significantly reduced wasteful spending by right-sizing several departments to E3 licenses and reallocating surplus licenses across teams. In parallel, Azure workloads were optimized by deleting orphaned storage, scheduling non-critical servers to shut down after hours, and utilizing reserved instances for steady-state workloads.
- Strategic Negotiation: Armed with data from the usage analysis, the independent advisor crafted a negotiation strategy for the EA renewal. The firm came to the table clearly understanding its requirements and a leaner license profile. This data-driven approach enabled them to push for better pricing on the licenses they truly needed and to secure additional Azure credits as part of the deal. By demonstrating where they could cut spending (and showing a willingness to consider alternate licensing programs if necessary), the company gained leverage to obtain higher discounts from Microsoft. The advisor’s insights into Microsoft’s discount benchmarks helped the firm benchmark its costs against industry standards, ensuring the new EA pricing was highly competitive.
Results: After implementing the optimizations and finalizing the negotiation, the construction firm achieved a 19% reduction in its Microsoft EA spend for the upcoming term. This translates to millions of dirhams in savings without any loss of functionality.
Key outcomes included:
- Cost Savings: A double-digit percentage cut in annual Microsoft licensing costs, freeing budget (~19% of the previous EA value) to reinvest in project technology and training. Much of the savings came from eliminating unused licenses and securing new Microsoft 365 and Azure discounts.
- License Alignment: The company entered the renewal period fully aware of its license needs, maintaining compliance while avoiding “shelfware” (paid-for licenses sitting unused). All users now had appropriate license levels, and Azure consumption was aligned with operational requirements, leading to more efficient cloud spending.
- Optimized IT Strategy: With a leaner licensing footprint, the IT department could focus on new initiatives. The EA now included flexible terms allowing the firm to scale licenses up or down as projects evolved, preventing lock-in to unnecessary spend.
“We thought our Microsoft costs were as optimized as they could get – we were proven wrong,” says the Chief Financial Officer of the firm. “The independent advisor showed us hidden inefficiencies in our Office 365 and Azure usage, enabling us to cut nearly one-fifth of our IT spend without hindering productivity. This 19% savings is money we can now channel into innovation on our construction sites.”
By leveraging an unbiased expert and taking a data-driven approach, the UAE construction company saved money and gained transparency and control over its Microsoft investment.
The case underscores how proactive analysis and expert negotiation can yield significant cost reduction and a more sustainable licensing strategy for the future.
