Recurring licensing reviews surface over $1 million in cost avoidance for a Kansas health plan

SHI's recurring Microsoft licensing reviews gave Kansas's largest health plan the visibility and governance structure needed to surface over $1 million in previously unquantified risk.

Challenge:

Kansas's largest and only local health plan has spent more than 80 years serving over one million members across the state as a not-for-profit health insurance provider. Keeping that promise to members demands that every dollar be spent intentionally, and that technology investments be managed with the same discipline applied to the care they support.

The organization had identified Microsoft licensing as an area of concern. Without a recurring, structured process for analyzing consumption and entitlement data, the team had limited ability to detect inactive or over-allocated subscriptions before they compounded into meaningful overspend. Visual Studio licensing exposure added another layer of risk, particularly as audit and renewal events approached. Managing and analyzing procurement documentation, contractual terms, and usage rights had become an ongoing burden, and the gap between what they were paying for and what they were actually using remained difficult to close without outside expertise.

Solution:

SHI partnered with the customer to deliver recurring Microsoft licensing analysis and optimization reviews throughout 2025, establishing a consistent cadence of structured assessments at four points throughout the year: February, May, August, and November. Using SHI's Management Information Exchange platform, our ITAM experts built a centralized repository for entitlement and license management, giving the customer a reliable, ongoing view of their Microsoft environment in place of periodic, reactive snapshots.

Each review cycle focused on identifying unused and over-allocated Microsoft 365 subscriptions and surfacing Visual Studio licensing exposure, both areas where the risk of drift between entitlement and actual usage is high and the cost of inaction compounds over time. SHI's license consultants provided actionable remediation guidance at each touchpoint, enabling the customer to make corrective adjustments ahead of renewals and potential audit activity rather than in response to them. The engagement was structured to build a repeatable optimization cadence rather than deliver one-time results.

Outcome:

Across the four 2025 review cycles, SHI identified $881,137 in total potential Microsoft overspend driven primarily by inactive and over-assigned Microsoft 365 subscriptions, alongside $171,225 in Visual Studio licensing risk exposure. Combined, the engagement surfaced over $1 million in cost avoidance and compliance risk that had previously gone unquantified.

Beyond the numbers, the engagement produced structural improvements that will continue delivering value. The customer gained improved forecast accuracy for Microsoft renewals and budget planning discussions, clearer visibility into subscription utilization across the organization, and a proactive governance posture in place of the reactive remediation cycle they had operated under previously.