Complete guide to Microsoft volume licensing for UK businesses. Understand enterprise discounts, volume pricing tiers, EA vs CSP, and how to access competitive rates.
Comprehensive guide to Microsoft enterprise licence cost optimisation for UK businesses. Reduce M365 and Azure costs through volume discounts, right-sizing, and smart purchasing.
Azure consumption represents one of the most challenging cost management areas for UK mid-market businesses. Unlike Microsoft 365's predictable per-user monthly pricing, Azure charges based on actual resource consumption - virtual machines, storage, networking, databases, and dozens of other services - creating bills that fluctuate based on usage patterns that evolve as your business scales.
Discover how Microsoft 365 volume licence discounts work for UK businesses. Learn what 200-500 employee companies should pay and how to access 13% savings without EA commitment.
Azure offers incredible potential, but many UK organisations aren't getting full value from their investment. If your Azure bill keeps climbing whilst you're unsure whether resources are being used efficiently, you're not alone.
From November 1st, 2025 , Microsoft is making a significant change to Enterprise Agreement pricing that could increase costs for many UK organisations by 6-12% or more. For years, Microsoft's EA pricing worked on a tiered volume discount system. Purchase more licences, unlock better pricing tiers (Level A through D). Larger organisations enjoyed deeper discounts simply by virtue of their size. That model is ending.
"We'd love to save money on Microsoft, but we can't risk any downtime." Here's the truth: switching Microsoft 365 or Azure providers involves zero technical downtime. Your data doesn't move. Your users notice nothing. Only the billing relationship changes.
If you're a Finance Director or CFO, Microsoft licensing is probably not your favourite topic. It's confusing. It's full of acronyms. And frankly, it's hard to know whether you're getting good value or being taken for a ride. This guide cuts through the jargon to explain what you actually need to know about Microsoft licensing from a financial perspective—without requiring any technical knowledge.
Microsoft 365 has become the backbone of modern business, powering productivity, collaboration, and security for organisations worldwide. However, whilst adoption has accelerated, so has wasteful spending on licensing and cloud services.
Most organisations manage Microsoft licensing as a technical issue when it's actually a financial asset. This disconnect costs UK businesses millions in inefficient spending that could be redirected to growth initiatives.