Microsoft has invested billions into cybersecurity, but users are still responsible for protecting their own data and using its powerful tools correctly. Unfortunately, where you find power, you also find complexity. And that complexity is exactly what makes Microsoft 365 harder to configure and harder to manage. 

And every misconfiguration or mismanaged license can cost you.

The Problems Larger Organizations Have With Microsoft License Management

For smaller organizations, managing Microsoft licenses can be a little bit easier. But for larger organizations with more diverse departments, it’s harder to track who’s using what. And as soon as you figure it out, it changes. 

Consider these common scenarios:

License Sprawl

Let’s say someone left the company six months ago, but their license is still active. A team requested premium features for a project that ended last quarter. An entire group is using a higher license tier “just in case” they needed those features, but as it turns out, they’ve barely used them. These small oversights add up fast. How fast? Most organizations waste over 30% of their Microsoft budget on unused or underutilized licenses.

Security Misconfigurations

With dozens of security settings across multiple Microsoft tools, it's easy for something to slip through the cracks. Maybe multi-factor authentication isn't enforced organization-wide. Perhaps external sharing permissions are too permissive. These gaps often go unnoticed until there's a problem, and by then, it's too late.

Lack of Visibility

Without a clear view into your Microsoft environment, you're essentially flying blind. Which licenses are assigned? Who's actually using them? Where are your security weak spots? For most businesses, answering these questions requires manually piecing together data from multiple dashboards — and who’s got time for that? 

Why Finding Your Microsoft Secure Score Isn’t Enough 

Many businesses turn to Microsoft's native tools to get visibility. For example, finding your Microsoft Secure Score is genuinely helpful, and the tool also provides recommendations to improve your security posture. It’s a great feature, and it’s free. 

There’s a “but” coming. 

The Microsoft Secure Score tool has a narrow focus: it only evaluates security configurations. It won't tell you anything about license waste, which users have inactive licenses, or whether you're paying for features nobody's using. Those insights require digging through separate dashboards in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and even then, connecting usage patterns to actual cost savings takes time and expertise. 

Microsoft’s tools also won’t know your business or your industry, which can change the math on what cybersecurity protections are necessary versus not. And even if its recommendations are spot on, implementing many of them still requires technical knowledge and dedicated time — resources that many small to mid-sized businesses simply don't have.

This is where a more comprehensive Microsoft 365 security assessment becomes invaluable — it looks at both security AND license optimization, giving you the full picture of your Microsoft environment in one place.

What Our New Microsoft Assessment Tool Can Do

We wanted to make Microsoft a little easier for our clients to manage. So we built a new tool that incorporates the Microsoft Secure Score, but also provides a lot more insights. So that’s what it’s called — our Microsoft Insights Assessment. 

Besides providing your Microsoft Secure Score, here’s what else it can (and usually does) help you do: 

Find License Waste

“Just in case” licensing leads to a lot of underused licenses. But our tool has discovered plenty of inactive licenses as well — often still assigned to former employees. License waste is incredibly expensive, and it can also represent a security risk. 

Catalog Security Misconfigurations

9 out of 10 organizations have at least some security gaps in their Microsoft environment. We know that. But like we mentioned before, a lot of businesses don’t know exactly how vulnerable they are. 

Identify Current Cybersecurity Incidents

This isn’t theoretical. It’s actually happened. More than one organization that’s used our online tool has found active business email compromise attacks. 

By the way, whenever we spot something like this, our team does more than just issue a report. We get on the phone. At least one of these organizations was working with a different IT provider, so it raised a few eyebrows. We’re just glad they were able to catch it when they did. 

Provide Clear Recommendations

Our report uses Microsoft tools to find security misconfigurations, but our Insights Assessment also includes a short survey (10-15 minutes), where you can provide more information about your business and your industry. 

Then, our Microsoft team will actually go over your results to offer you more customized recommendations. Not every organization needs to be Fort Knox! Our team will personally go over where you are and where you need to be, so you know where updates are important and where you start getting diminishing returns. 

Taking Advantage of Our Microsoft Offer

Getting started with our online Microsoft Insights Assessment is incredibly easy. But if you haven’t worked with us before (and we haven’t built that trust with you yet), here’s what you should know. First of all, we’re a certified Microsoft Solutions Partner, which means our Microsoft team has proven its abilities to secure and support Microsoft’s tools at an elite level. 

Also, in order to do its thing, our diagnostic tool will need Global Admin credentials in order to scan your Microsoft environment using read-only access — never touching your actual emails or files — to see who’s using what, how your tools are configured, and where you might be able to save some money. And of course, you can revoke that access at any time. If you have any questions about our Insights Assessment, feel free to reach out. Otherwise, you can get an overview of what to expect through the link below!