How a proactive Microsoft assessment helped a healthcare organization plan for renewal early.

By engaging SHI well before renewal, the customer gained the clarity and confidence needed to turn Microsoft licensing into a strategic advantage.

Challenge:

The customer, a global healthcare organization with tens of thousands of users supported by a highly complex enterprise technology stack, was approaching a period of significant change in its Microsoft environment. While the organization had historically managed its Microsoft licensing well, leadership recognized that the landscape was shifting. Microsoft’s increasing push toward direct customer relationships, ongoing price increases, and evolving product bundles were introducing new uncertainty into long-term planning. They found themselves two years from a major enterprise agreement decision with limited visibility into whether their current licensing strategy would continue to align with their technology roadmap.

Internally, the customer wanted clarity. They needed to understand how much value they were realistically receiving from their Microsoft investments, where that value might erode over time as technology decisions changed, and whether their current agreement structure would remain defensible to executive and financial stakeholders.

Solution:

SHI approached the engagement as a consultative partnership rather than a transactional exercise. The Microsoft Software Optimization Services (MSOS) team employed SHI’s Cloud Matrix workshop, a structured discovery process designed to assess both current usage and future intent across Microsoft technologies.

Through a combination of on-site executive interviews and virtual working sessions, SHI gathered input from IT leaders and business stakeholders to understand which Microsoft capabilities were actively being used, which were planned, and which were unlikely to be adopted. SHI then applied a proprietary system to assign value scores to individual features and workloads, translating complex licensing data into a clear view of cost versus realized value.

The analysis revealed a nuanced situation. While the customer had negotiated strong pricing and historically optimized licenses well, upcoming shifts in their security strategy toward third-party tools would gradually reduce the value derived from their premium Microsoft licenses. This presented a strategic opportunity. The Cloud Matrix provided the customer with a factual baseline, enabling informed discussions about future user profiling, licensing tiers, and renewal scenarios well in advance of contractual deadlines.

SHI concluded the engagement with an executive-level presentation that clearly articulated past savings, current alignment, and future risks. The presentation equipped internal champions with data they could confidently share with finance and executive leadership, setting the stage for proactive decision-making rather than reactive negotiations.

Outcome:

By engaging SHI well ahead of their renewal cycle, the customer gained deep, forward looking insight into the true value of their Microsoft investment, far beyond what a standard licensing assessment would have revealed. Through SHI’s Cloud Matrix workshop, the customer received a clear, evidence based view of how Microsoft capabilities aligned to their evolving business and technical strategy. The structured value analysis validated where past licensing decisions had delivered strong outcomes, and it also showed where value would erode over time. This clarity created an informed, cross functional understanding between IT, procurement, finance, and business leaders, establishing consensus early instead of facing misalignment during renewal.

Building on this insight, SHI’s Decision Advisory services have already begun and are transforming that initial assessment into actionable, long range strategies. With a shared fact base and SHI’s ongoing strategic guidance, the customer began shaping their 2026 Microsoft renewal years in advance, evaluating scenario options, aligning user profiling with roadmap realities, and continuously refining value assessments as priorities shifted.

By starting this process early and leveraging SHI’s advisory led approach, the customer shifted Microsoft negotiations from reactive, last minute decision making to a deliberate, data driven planning motion. This positioned SHI not only as an assessor of current state, but as a long term strategic partner, guiding the customer through future proofed decisions, optimized cost structures, and a renewal strategy built on clarity and control rather than pressure and assumptions.