Defense built for the moment Microsoft sets the number.
Every Microsoft and SPLA audit opens with a position that overstates what you owe. Our services exist to rebuild the evidence, defend your Effective License Position, and turn the opening demand into a defended outcome. We sit on your side of the table, never the vendor's.
End customers and hosters face different mechanics
Microsoft verifies end customers and hosters through separate programs with separate rules. We keep the two tracks distinct because the defense for each is distinct. Choose the track that fits, or speak with us if you are not sure which applies to you.
Microsoft license audits
Microsoft verifies licensing three ways. A SAM engagement is voluntary and sales led. A self verification is a contractual demand you cannot decline. A formal audit runs through a third party accounting firm under the MBSA audit clause. All three end in an Effective License Position that is negotiated after the report, not handed down as final.
The contract clause bites when unlicensed use reaches 5 percent or more of total use. At that point the customer reimburses Microsoft for verification costs and acquires licenses at 125 percent of current price. The defense begins before that number is set.
SPLA hoster audits
SPLA is monthly pay as you consume. Compliance is verified for every monthly reporting cycle across a 36 month lookback, not just your current position. A Big Four firm conducts the audit under the MBSA audit clause with broad authority to request deployment records, server configuration, customer contracts, and usage logs.
Back fees at the price file rate are not negotiable. The penalty uplift, which ranges from 25 to 125 percent, is. The structural defense is reporting discipline, and where the record has gaps we reconstruct it before the auditor compounds them.
How we cut your exposure
Six engagements that map to where you are in the audit, from the first letter through settlement. Each is backed by the same guarantee and offered on either pricing model.
Microsoft Audit Defense
For end customers in a formal audit or self verification. We manage the engagement from the letter to settlement, rebuild a defensible ELP, and challenge the finding before the number hardens.
- Independent ELP rebuilt from your own data
- The 5 percent clause and the 125 percent uplift contested
- Settlement negotiated from a controlled position
SPLA Audit Defense
For hosters under a SPLA audit. We reconstruct the monthly positions across the 36 month lookback and defend the base line by line before anything is conceded.
- Monthly SAL base rebuilt from operations data
- Fixed back fees separated from the negotiable uplift
- Every reported SAL mapped to a customer and a version
SAM Engagement Response
A SAM engagement is presented as free optimization and used to find gaps and create sales. We help you decline the initial review or control it, and assess yourself first.
- Decline or scope the SAM motion on your terms
- An internal assessment run before Microsoft sees the data
- A controlled response to any formal demand that follows
EA True Up Defense
The annual Enterprise Agreement true up is a self report, not an audit, but a wrong true up creates exposure that a later audit will find. We right size it before you submit.
- The true up demand checked against real entitlement
- Over counted positions removed before submission
- Renewal timing used as leverage, not against you
ELP and Exposure Modeling
Know your real position before Microsoft does. We model your Effective License Position across the whole estate so you walk into any verification already holding the evidence.
- Deployment reconciled against entitlement, estate wide
- Azure, Microsoft 365, and on premises counted together
- A defensible position ready before any letter arrives
Penalty Mitigation
When a finding is on the table, we separate what is fixed from what is negotiable and argue each on its own terms to bring the settlement down.
- Non negotiable back fees isolated from the uplift
- The 25 to 125 percent uplift argued down on evidence
- Remediation documented for the record
Reduce your exposure, or you pay us nothing
We win because the opening position overstates what you owe.
If our defense does not reduce your Microsoft or SPLA exposure, we reimburse our service fee in full. The opening number is almost always built to be high, and we are confident enough to stand behind the work.
- No reduction, no fee, we pay our service fee back
- Gainshare means you pay only from verified savings
- We never take vendor money, only your side of the table
Two ways to engage, no downside
Fixed Fee
- One agreed number, no surprises
- Best when the scope is known
- Reimbursed if we do not reduce exposure
Gainshare
- You pay only from what we remove
- Reduce nothing, owe nothing
- No risk to you, by design
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The Audit Brief
Weekly intelligence on Microsoft and SPLA audit moves and the buyer side defenses that work.