Across dozens of customers, millions of expensive licenses looked necessary. Actual usage told a very different story.
Large retail enterprise; 13,000 ServiceNow ITSM Fulfiller subscriptions assessed
ITSM Fulfiller / Business Stakeholder / Requester
Starting Point
13,000 ITSM Fulfiller subscriptions
→ Recommended State
3,900 Fulfillers retained; 9,100 Fulfiller subscriptions identified for removal or reclassification based on actual need
What Real Usage revealed
19% (2,470) never logged in. A further 51% (6,630) logged in but showed no Fulfiller-relevant activity. Only 30% (3,900) showed observed usage consistent with Fulfiller access.
Action
Remove Fulfiller rights from inactive users and users without Fulfiller-relevant activity. Retain Requester or Business Stakeholder access only where the observed usage and contractual entitlement model require it.
Financial Impact
€4.0m OPEX potential
Evidence rule
A login alone does not qualify a user as an active Fulfiller. Qualification requires observed activity corresponding to Fulfiller-relevant roles and functions.
6,000 employees; 780 support users
Zendesk full agent / light agent
Starting Point
780 full agent seats
→ Recommended State
510 full agents; 170 light agents; 100 removed
What Real Usage revealed
510 users handled and solved tickets. 170 only reviewed tickets or added internal context within light-agent permissions. 100 showed no qualifying support activity.
Action
Retain full agent seats for ticket handlers; use light-agent access only where included and functionally sufficient.
Financial Impact
€0.4m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Ticket assignment, public replies, status changes and resolution separated from internal review/comment behavior.
10,000 employees; 1,450 design/collaboration users
Figma paid seats; Lucid Suite paid licenses / Limited-access users
Starting Point
720 paid Figma seats; 730 paid Lucid Suite licenses
→ Recommended State
590 Figma paid seats; 410 Lucid paid licenses; remaining users view or collaborate within validated access rights
What Real Usage revealed
130 Figma seats and 320 Lucid licenses were unsupported by paid-seat activity. A further overlap cohort was retained on the tool required by its workflow—not removed twice.
Action
Remove unused paid seats and resolve tool overlap by role, content ownership and required capabilities.
Financial Impact
€0.7m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Creation/editing and paid-feature use by unique person; duplicate identities resolved.
7,500 employees; 2,400 collaboration users
Jira user / Confluence user
Starting Point
1,650 Jira users; 1,900 Confluence users
→ Recommended State
1,280 Jira users; 1,420 Confluence users
What Real Usage revealed
370 Jira users neither created nor progressed work. 480 Confluence users did not author or collaborate and only required published knowledge access or no access.
Action
Reduce each product independently; do not infer that every Jira user needs Confluence authoring rights.
Financial Impact
€0.7m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Issue creation/progression and page authoring/collaboration measured separately.
13,000 employees; 2,300 Teamcenter users
Teamcenter base access and contract-specific named-user/module entitlements
Starting Point
2,300 base users; 980 users with specialist module entitlements
→ Recommended State
1,880 base users; 540 specialist module entitlements
What Real Usage revealed
420 base accounts had no qualifying lifecycle activity. 440 specialist-module assignments were not supported by observed specialist functions.
Action
Reduce base and specialist entitlements separately; retain occasional but critical release and compliance roles.
Financial Impact
€1.4m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Lifecycle transactions, workflow participation and specialist module functions.
8,500 employees; 1,100 ALM users
Codebeamer Registered (Seat) / Concurrent (Float); Collaboration / Advanced / Premium packages
Starting Point
820 Registered Premium; 280 Concurrent Premium
→ Recommended State
430 Registered Premium; 210 Concurrent Premium; 300 Collaboration; 160 removed
What Real Usage revealed
430 users required persistent premium access. Peak simultaneous premium use supported 210 floating licenses. 300 collaborators used only qualifying collaboration scenarios.
Action
Rebalance seat and float licenses and align package level to observed capability use.
Financial Impact
€1.1m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Feature/package use plus 95th-percentile concurrency; session timeout behavior normalized.
20,000 employees; 2,100 BI users across both platforms
Tableau Creator / Explorer / Viewer; Qlik contract-specific user entitlements
Starting Point
1,250 Tableau users + 850 Qlik users
→ Recommended State
1,590 users retained on the strategic BI platform; 510 duplicate or inactive entitlements removed
What Real Usage revealed
510 people had duplicate access or no meaningful BI activity. 1,590 had a validated authoring, exploration or consumption need on one platform.
Action
Consolidate overlapping audiences onto the designated platform and retire duplicate entitlements after content migration.
Financial Impact
€0.9m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Unique people, content ownership, dashboard use and platform-specific dependencies.
11,000 employees; 2,750 Power BI users
Power BI Pro / Premium Per User (PPU) / Free
Starting Point
2,050 Pro; 700 PPU
→ Recommended State
1,480 Pro; 180 PPU; 1,090 Free or removed
What Real Usage revealed
Only 180 users consumed PPU-only capabilities. 1,480 needed Pro for publishing or collaboration; 1,090 only consumed content available under the validated capacity model or had no qualifying use.
Action
Reserve PPU and Pro for feature-qualified users; use Free only where workspace and capacity rules permit.
Financial Impact
€0.2m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Publishing, sharing, workspace roles and PPU-only capability use; capacity context included.
32,000 employees; 520 service agents; unlimited customer population
Jira Service Management / Service Collection agent
Starting Point
520 paid agents
→ Recommended State
355 paid agents; customers remain unlicensed
What Real Usage revealed
355 users worked on requests as agents. 95 only submitted or followed requests. 70 were inactive or legacy assignments.
Action
Remove agent access from 165 users while preserving customer access where required.
Financial Impact
€0.3m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Agent work on requests separated from customer portal activity.
25,000 employees; 3,600 S/4HANA users
SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management: Professional / Functional / Productivity use
Starting Point
3,600 users predominantly classified as Professional use
→ Recommended State
1,420 Professional; 1,180 Functional; 650 Productivity; 350 removed
What Real Usage revealed
Only 1,420 users executed broad Professional-use scenarios. Repetitive or self-service activity supported lower-use classifications for validated roles.
Action
Reclassify users only after mapping every executed Fiori app and transaction to the contracted use definitions.
Financial Impact
€2.7m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Fiori app and transaction usage mapped to contractual use definitions.
16,500 employees; 1,050 ERP users assessed
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP – contract-specific hosted user metric
Starting Point
1,050 paid users in the scoped ERP population
→ Recommended State
760 paid users retained; 290 removed
What Real Usage revealed
760 users performed ERP transactions or required recurring control access. 290 accounts were dormant, duplicate or outside the active role population.
Action
Remove 290 paid user assignments at the contractual adjustment point after control-owner validation.
Financial Impact
€1.0m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Posting, approval, inquiry and control activity; quarter-close and service accounts separated.
22,000 employees; HR service population
Workday Help – regional add-on scope
Starting Point
One regional Workday Help add-on subscription
→ Recommended State
Regional add-on removed; core Workday HCM retained
What Real Usage revealed
Employees used the established global HR portal; the regional Workday Help scope generated no material case deflection or knowledge consumption.
Action
End only the redundant regional add-on scope, not the core HCM subscription.
Financial Impact
€0.3m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Knowledge views, search, case creation and deflection behavior; global portal usage included.
14,000 employees; 2,400 people in scoped population
SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Marketing – scoped regional subscription
Starting Point
Regional subscription active for 2,400 employees
→ Recommended State
Subscription removed for the region
What Real Usage revealed
The region had no active campaigns, attributable applicants or hires during two recruiting cycles; recruiting was run through the global instance.
Action
Terminate the redundant regional module subscription at renewal and retain the global service.
Financial Impact
€0.4m contracted annual OPEX reduction
Evidence rule
Campaign, applicant and hire activity plus routing to the global instance.
9,800 employees; 640 Dynamics users
Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise / Team Members
Starting Point
640 Sales Enterprise subscriptions
→ Recommended State
390 Sales Enterprise; 170 Team Members; 80 removed
What Real Usage revealed
390 users executed full sales processes. 170 used only qualifying lightweight scenarios. 80 had no meaningful activity.
Action
Match subscriptions to actual process depth instead of assigning Sales Enterprise to every occasional participant.
Financial Impact
€0.3m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Opportunity, account and sales-process activity distinguished from read, approval and simple update scenarios.
12,500 employees; 920 CRM users
Sales Cloud Enterprise / Salesforce Platform
Starting Point
920 Sales Cloud Enterprise users
→ Recommended State
570 Sales Cloud Enterprise; 230 Salesforce Platform; 120 removed
What Real Usage revealed
570 users required core CRM selling capabilities. 230 only used eligible custom apps and platform functions. 120 showed no qualifying business use.
Action
Retain full CRM rights only for sellers; move eligible internal-app users to Salesforce Platform and remove dormant assignments.
Financial Impact
€0.5m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Object-, app- and function-level behavior; not login frequency alone.
18,000 employees; 1,150 ITSM users assessed
ITSM Fulfiller / Business Stakeholder / Requester
Starting Point
1,150 ITSM Fulfiller subscriptions
→ Recommended State
310 Fulfillers; 140 Business Stakeholders; 700 Requesters
What Real Usage revealed
310 users performed Fulfiller-mapped work. 140 only approved or reviewed. 700 used requester scenarios only.
Action
Move 840 users out of the Fulfiller population, subject to the customer’s contracted role mappings.
Financial Impact
€3.4m validated annual OPEX potential
Evidence rule
Fulfiller-mapped roles and actual fulfillment actions; approval-only behavior separated.