Licensing & CSP

Microsoft licensing: advisory, procurement, and optimisation

Veratas is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). We advise on the right licences, procure them through a single commercial relationship, and continuously optimise your licence estate to eliminate waste. Whether you need M365, Dynamics 365, Azure, Power Platform, or Copilot add-on licences, we handle procurement and advisory under one agreement.

Talk to a licensing specialist
What we deliver

Microsoft CSP and licensing services

From M365 seat counts and Dynamics 365 module licensing through to Azure subscription management and full estate audits, expert advisory and direct procurement as your Microsoft CSP.

01.

Microsoft 365 licensing

Business Basic, Standard, E3, E5: right-sizing for your organisation

  • M365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium: advisory and procurement for SMB and mid-market
  • M365 E3 and E5: enterprise feature comparison, security uplift, and licence transition planning
  • Frontline Worker licences F1 and F3 for manufacturing, retail, and field teams
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on: eligibility assessment, readiness check, and phased rollout
  • Licence audit: identifying unused, over-assigned, or incorrectly assigned M365 seats
  • EA vs CSP commercial agreement comparison and recommendation

02.

Dynamics 365 licensing

F&O, Business Central, CRM, and Power Platform licensing advisory

  • Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations: base licence, attach licence, and team member advisory
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials vs Premium: capability and cost comparison
  • Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, and Project Operations licensing
  • Power Platform per-app, per-user, and pay-as-you-go model selection and procurement
  • Dynamics 365 Copilot add-on licences: Sales, Customer Service, and Finance modules
  • ISV solution licensing: AppSource app licensing alongside core Dynamics licences

03.

Azure subscription management

Optimising Azure spend and commercial structures

  • Azure subscription provisioning and management under CSP agreement
  • Pay-as-you-go vs reserved instances vs savings plans: analysis and procurement
  • Azure Hybrid Benefit: maximising Windows Server and SQL licence value in Azure
  • Dev/Test subscription pricing for non-production environments
  • Azure credits: startup, nonprofit, and education eligibility assessment
  • Multi-subscription architecture for billing separation and cost allocation

04.

Licence optimisation & cost reduction

Ongoing right-sizing and cost governance

  • Full licence estate audit across M365, Dynamics 365, Azure, and Power Platform
  • Unused licence identification and reclamation: typical savings of 15 to 30 percent
  • Licence assignment governance: ensuring licences match actual role requirements
  • Monthly licence reporting and spend dashboards via M365 Admin Center and Cost Management
  • Annual renewal planning: timing, negotiation support, and CSP vs EA review
  • Software Asset Management: compliance assurance and over-licensing prevention

05.

CSP procurement & support

Single-vendor Microsoft procurement through Veratas

  • Direct Microsoft licence procurement through Veratas CSP: single monthly invoice
  • New tenant creation, domain verification, and licence assignment at onboarding
  • Licence adds, removes, and changes managed by Veratas: no Microsoft portal access required
  • CSP billing support: invoice queries, credit requests, and usage reconciliation
  • Microsoft support escalation: Veratas as intermediary for technical support tickets
  • New Microsoft product advisory: preview programmes and early access guidance
Free, no obligation

A free Microsoft licensing review

A short, independent review of your Microsoft licensing, with clear ways to save. No fee, no commitment.

Free   |   30 to 45 minutes   |   No obligation

Book your free review
What we review

Where you are over or under-licensed

We look across your Microsoft estate and show you where the money goes.

  • Your current Microsoft 365, Dynamics, and Azure licences
  • Over-licensing and unused subscriptions
  • Under-licensing and compliance gaps
  • CSP versus Enterprise Agreement options
  • Cost-saving and right-sizing recommendations
  • A short summary you can act on

There is no charge for the review. Microsoft licences cost the same through us as buying direct, with a partner who manages renewals and advises on the right plan.

Why Veratas CSP

Why enterprises consolidate Microsoft licensing with Veratas

Microsoft licensing is the largest discretionary IT spend most organisations have. Veratas brings continuous optimisation, transparent advice, and multi-region delivery, not just a transaction.

CSP partnership with continuous optimisation

Most CSPs sell you licences then disappear. We run monthly licence utilisation reviews, typically reclaiming 15-30% of unused licence spend through right-sizing, downgrading inactive users, and consolidating overlapping subscriptions.

All-Microsoft commercial relationship

One CSP relationship covers Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure, Power Platform, and Copilot add-ons. No fragmented agreements across resellers. Quarterly business reviews surface upcoming renewals and consolidation opportunities.

Licence advice independent of revenue

We will tell you when E3 is enough, even though E5 pays us more commission. We track which Microsoft features you actually use, then recommend the smallest licence that covers them. Honest licensing advice grounded in usage data.

Multi-region and multi-entity coverage

For multi-national operations: licences procured in local currencies and tax structures across US, UK, EU, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Reseller relationships set up to align with your entity structure rather than forcing your structure to align with ours.

Microsoft licensing reference

Common Microsoft licence prices (US public list)

Most-used Microsoft commercial licences. Prices subject to Microsoft list price changes, usually announced 30-60 days in advance. Volume discounts, multi-year, and CSP-specific pricing may apply. Veratas optimises licence mix during quarterly reviews.

Licence
Best for
What's included
$ / user / mo
Microsoft 365 E3
Knowledge worker baseline
Desktop Office, Teams, OneDrive 1TB, basic Intune, Entra ID P1, Defender for Endpoint P1, Information Protection P1
$36.00
Microsoft 365 E5
Security + compliance + voice
Everything in E3, plus Defender XDR (Office 365 P2, Endpoint P2, Identity, Cloud Apps), Purview advanced, Teams Phone, Power BI Pro, advanced eDiscovery, audit
$57.00
Microsoft 365 F1
Frontline read mostly
Web/mobile apps, Yammer, SharePoint (read), Teams. No desktop apps, no mailbox.
$2.25
Microsoft 365 F3
Frontline with mailbox
Everything in F1 plus 2 GB mailbox, web Outlook, Stream, Forms, mobile Office apps.
$8.00
Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise
Sales force automation
Sales pipeline, forecasting, sales accelerator, embedded intelligence.
$95.00
Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise
Service operations
Case management, knowledge base, omnichannel optional.
$95.00
Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials
Mid-market ERP base
GL, AP/AR, projects, inventory, sales, purchase.
$70.00
Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium
Mid-market with manufacturing
Everything in Essentials, plus manufacturing and service management.
$100.00
Power BI Pro
Self-service BI
Author and consume Power BI content, no premium capacity.
$10.00
Power BI Premium per user (PPU)
Self-service with premium features
Per-user Power BI Premium including paginated reports, larger datasets, AI insights.
$20.00
Microsoft Copilot for M365
AI in M365 apps
Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams. Requires underlying M365 licence.
$30.00
Microsoft Power Apps per app
Single app deployment
Run one custom Power App per user.
$5.00
Microsoft Power Apps per user
Unlimited Power Apps
Run unlimited custom Power Apps per user.
$20.00
Agreement comparison

Microsoft CSP vs Enterprise Agreement vs MPSA

Three common Microsoft commercial agreement structures. Most mid-market clients land on CSP for flexibility; large stable enterprises (5000+ seats) often retain Enterprise Agreement for tiered discounts and Microsoft account team coverage.

Aspect
CSP (Cloud Solution Provider)
Enterprise Agreement (EA)
MPSA
Minimum size
1 seat
500+ seats (EAS) / 250+ (EAP)
5+ seats
Commitment
Monthly or annual; flexible
3-year locked
No commitment; pay as you go
Discounts
Some CSP-negotiated discounts
Tiered enterprise discounts
Limited (transactional pricing)
Billing currency
Local or USD via CSP
USD primarily; some regional billing
Local
Renewal flexibility
Month-to-month possible
Renegotiate every 3 years
Renewal not required
Adding licences mid-term
Yes, easily
Yes, but trues up at anniversary
Yes
Removing licences mid-term
Yes (annual at renewal)
No (3-year commit)
Yes
Best for
Most mid-market and growing enterprises
Stable enterprise with predictable growth
Smaller orgs, government, transactional buyers
Licensing optimisation

How Veratas runs continuous licence optimisation

Microsoft licensing is not ‘set and forget’, users come and go, features change, Microsoft introduces new SKUs. Continuous optimisation typically reclaims 15-30% of unused licence spend within the first 12 months.

01

Inventory

Full licence position assessment across all Microsoft products. Audit who has what licence, when it was last used, and what features they actually consume. Reconcile against Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Power Platform Admin Center, Azure subscriptions, and Dynamics environments.

02

Right-size

Identify users on E5 who only use E3 features. Identify Power BI Pro users not using premium features. Identify Dynamics 365 users whose roles map to a cheaper licence (e.g. Customer Service Pro vs Enterprise). Output: licence move recommendations with savings estimate.

03

Consolidate

Identify duplicate Power Platform licences (per-app + per-user). Consolidate overlapping Microsoft 365 Frontline (F1/F3) versus full E3 where workloads don’t justify the full licence. Output: consolidation plan with no-disruption migration sequence.

04

Eliminate inactive

Identify accounts inactive for 30+ days that hold licences. Common causes: leavers not properly offboarded, generic accounts, dev accounts. Output: offboarding pipeline aligned to HR and security processes.

05

Quarterly review

Recurring quarterly licence review. Trend reporting on licence utilisation. Renewal alerts for term-based agreements. Output: monthly licence optimisation report and quarterly executive summary.

FAQ

Microsoft licensing questions answered

CSP vs EA, plan selection, optimisation, and transfer questions, the conversations we have most often with prospective clients.

CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) is Microsoft's modern, flexible licensing channel, monthly or annual commitment, scalable seat-by-seat, modified anytime. EA (Enterprise Agreement) is the traditional enterprise licensing channel, 3-year commitment, 500+ seat minimum, tiered discounts, fixed pricing through term. Most mid-market clients move to CSP for flexibility; very large stable enterprises retain EA for negotiated discounts.
Typical first-pass licence audit reclaims 15-30% of unused licence spend. Common findings: inactive user accounts still licensed, E5 users who only use E3 features, Power BI Pro users without premium feature usage, Dynamics 365 Enterprise users who could be on Pro/Standard, duplicate Power Platform licences. We run audits as fixed-price engagements with guaranteed savings or no fee.
Azure Hybrid Benefit allows you to use existing Windows Server and SQL Server licences (with Software Assurance) on Azure VMs at significantly reduced cost. For SQL Server it can save 55%+ on Azure SQL pricing. For Windows Server it saves about 40% on VM costs. Most clients with Software Assurance qualify but aren't using it, Veratas audits this during Azure migration.
E3 fits most knowledge workers, Office desktop, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Entra ID P1, basic Defender. E5 adds advanced security (Defender XDR full suite), advanced compliance (Purview advanced, advanced eDiscovery, audit), Teams Phone, and Power BI Pro. Decision driver: do you need the advanced security/compliance stack? If yes, E5 is typically cheaper than buying the equivalent add-ons. Most enterprises mix E3 baseline with E5 for IT, security, finance, and executive teams.
F1: lowest-cost frontline licence ($2.25/mo), web apps, mobile apps, Teams, Yammer, SharePoint read mostly, no mailbox. F3: frontline with mailbox ($8/mo), adds 2GB mailbox, web Outlook, Stream, Forms, mobile Office. Designed for shop-floor, retail, healthcare aides, high-volume, low-content-creation roles. Average enterprise saves significantly by moving non-knowledge-worker roles from full E3 to F1/F3.
The licensing review itself is free. Power Apps per-app: $5/user/month, run one specific custom app per user. Per-user: $20/user/month, run unlimited Power Apps. Decision: under 5 apps per user → per-app; 5+ apps per user → per-user. Power Automate: per-flow ($100/flow/month for premium connectors) vs per-user ($15/user/month for premium connectors). Choose based on flow volume and user distribution.
Yes. Microsoft 365 Copilot is an add-on requiring an underlying M365 licence (Business Standard, Premium, E3, E5, or A3/A5). $30/user/month, annual commitment. Role-specific Copilots (Copilot for Sales, Service, Finance) bundle differently and may include the base M365 Copilot licence.
Yes. Switching CSP → EA: typical at EA contract start, requires alignment with Microsoft Account Team. Switching EA → CSP: easier, done at EA expiry (or with EA termination if buyout). Veratas handles the licence migration mechanics including ensuring no service interruption. Most clients switching to CSP do so for the monthly flexibility and to consolidate procurement under a partner.
We invoice in your local currency (USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD, INR, AED supported as primary) using Microsoft's regional reseller pricing. Multi-entity clients get separate invoices per entity. VAT/GST handled per region. Annual licence price reviews aligned to Microsoft's commercial price changes.
Customer data stays in the same Microsoft tenant, moving CSP changes the commercial relationship, not the technical hosting. No data migration required. Service is uninterrupted. Microsoft requires a 'change of partner' request acknowledged by the customer in Microsoft 365 Admin Center; we handle this paperwork. Total transfer typically takes 7-14 days from approval.
Nothing. The licensing review is free and carries no obligation. We look at your current Microsoft 365, Dynamics, and Azure licences and show you where you are over or under-licensed, with clear cost-saving recommendations.
You get a short summary with right-sizing and cost-saving recommendations you can act on, with us or on your own. If you choose to buy your Microsoft licences through us as your CSP partner, you get a partner who manages renewals and advises on the right plan, at the same licence price.
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Advisory, procurement, and optimisation, one CSP partner for every Microsoft licence.

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