Business owners and IT experts that utilize Microsoft software for employees need to be properly licensed by Microsoft to avoid major problems that can have a negative impact on a company’s financial situation and image. Many businesses endure unnecessary hardships from high costs, loss of resources and even company embarrassment due to incorrect licensing of Microsoft products.
Many IT experts are very familiar with Microsoft software, but not all are aware that there are many different software licensing configurations that exist. For example; with Windows Server alone, there are about 82,000 different product combinations for which you can get a license for, and licensing errors can easily occur without the correct knowledge.
In 2016 there were roughly 10,000+ businesses audited by Microsoft for inadequate licensing and the average Microsoft SAM (Software Asset Management) audit fine is $100,000.
These avoidable errors can be extremely expensive for a business, whether they are over-licensing or under-licensing. Over-licensing can occur when a business is afraid of being audited by Microsoft, so they end up buying too many licenses for the amount of software and users they have. While some may think this is a good strategy that can avoid a negative audit from Microsoft, when really, they end up throwing away thousands of dollars on unnecessary over-licensing.