If you’re an IT manager, chances are your technology costs have crept up over the last few years. Monthly invoices stack up, renewals land faster than you can track them, and despite paying for tool after tool, you still hear the same complaints: “We need better security,” “We don’t have the right features,” or “We’ve had to buy something else because this one doesn’t do the job.”
I can tell you that you’re not alone because I see this every day. As a Modern Work Solution Specialist, I review Microsoft 365, security, communications, and cloud environments for UK SMBs. I see an all-too-common pattern that repeats itself: organisations are unknowingly paying for things twice — sometimes three times. And the frustrating part is that this duplication isn’t the result of anyone making a bad decision. It’s because IT ecosystems have become genuinely complex. Tools change constantly, Microsoft evolves at lightning speed, and teams buy what they need to just keep the business moving.
But the good news is that once you know where to look, cleaning up duplicate spend is one of the fastest, safest, and most impactful ways to improve your IT stack. Organisations currently investing in multiple productivity, collaboration and security tools, or that simply don’t keep on top of their software spending, recover 15–30% of their monthly IT spend simply by streamlining what they already own — without cutting corners on security or productivity.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the top four areas where duplicate spend hides, why it happens, and the steps you can take today to start fixing it.
Security is the single most significant area where SMBs duplicate their tools. Cost aside, the real issue isn’t overspending, but misunderstanding what’s included in the licences you already pay for.
- An endpoint protection tool,
- An email security gateway,
- A threat detection platform,
- A multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution,
- A mobile device management (MDM) tool, and
- A data governance tool
All while already owning Microsoft 365 Business Premium, which includes:
Microsoft frequently updates its SKUs, making it hard for IT managers to keep up with all the changes. So, most businesses don’t realise what’s included in their current licences. When it comes to cyber security in particular, nobody wants to gamble with their company’s data (especially with all the cyber attacks we’ve been seeing in the headlines lately). So, they layer tools on top of each other “just in case.”
The irony is that doing so can actually do more harm than good, because buying more tools does not increase your cyber security posture. Security tools should be implemented strategically to prevent conflicting functionality, increased administrative overhead and inconsistent or unpredictable behaviour.
An effective security solution should provide coverage of the most commonly targeted areas of your business: your people, their online personas (identities) and their devices. M365 Business Premium provides this coverage and establishes a secure baseline for your business.
Microsoft licensing is powerful and flexible, but can be genuinely hard to navigate. Businesses often overspend because they aren’t keeping up with the rate of change in the Microsoft technology stack. The best value proposition now is not what it was three years ago.
The most common scenarios I see include:
When I complete a licensing audit, I almost always find savings within the first hour. Not because customers did anything wrong, but because Microsoft evolves quickly, and licence requirements shift. Three years ago, certain features were only available in Enterprise licences, which led many SMBs to buy the more expensive option. But Microsoft has radically expanded the scope of what SMB-focused bundles now include.
If you run Business Premium, it should be your backbone because it now offers enterprise-grade features (at SMB pricing). You should be squeezing every drop of value from it before looking elsewhere.
Although cloud is “pay for what you use”, the reality is that many SMBs are paying for what they used to use or what they think they might use.
Here’s how these hidden costs usually show up:
Then there’s the looming issue of ‘SharePoint bloat’: many people don’t realise just how expensive it is to store files. I get it, cloud storage feels limitless, and it is. But this causes teams to think they can keep everything forever. You technically can, but it isn’t free, and when SharePoint libraries inflate, so does your monthly bill.
Right-sizing cloud storage is one of the cleanest optimisation exercises you can do. And it usually delivers immediate savings. Consider the data your business is storing on cloud platforms right now: is it kept because it needs to be for your governance or compliance standards, or “just in case”?
Many businesses default to giving everyone the same licence. The Microsoft licensing stack is complex. Defaulting to the same option for everyone often feels like the easiest choice, though this can lead to overspending. Licencing should be applied intelligently based on the user’s context and roles within the organisation, but in a way that doesn’t compromise security or productivity.
Check out this article to unpack what M365 licence sprawl is and how to get it under control.
Misaligned licences lead to:
Role-based licensing nearly always brings spend down while simultaneously improving the user experience.
When we help organisations consolidate their spending, when assessing an unoptimised environment, we recover 15–30% of their monthly technology spend simply by streamlining what they already own. All without weakening security, productivity, or governance. And this isn’t cost-cutting for the sake of it: these are like-for-like savings.
We’ve walked through the top five duplication hotspots: security stack, licensing, cloud infrastructure and role-based licences. And you now have a simple three-step plan to clean it up.
I see these patterns every day in SMBs across the UK. As a Modern Work Solution Specialist, my role is to help you understand what you already own, where you’re overspending, and how to simplify your stack without weakening security.