Is it Even Possible To be Compliant in the SPLA Program?
I had a call with a prospective client recently. On the call he says “It’s IMPOSSIBLE to be compliant with SPLA reporting. Microsoft makes it too complicated. And their tools don’t work.”
I would say until recently, this may have been a fairly true statement. SPLA reporting is indeed complicated, and the recommended MAP toolkit doesn’t always provide the data needed, and it only takes a point-in-time snapshot of environments.
Today’s IT environments are extremely dynamic, with new workloads being spun up and down at a moment’s notice. Partners are expected to understand the language of the SPUR (Services Provider Use Rights that dictate how to license in SPLA) and make their own interpretations and apply them to an infinite number of use cases. Have a look - the SPUR is a long and complicated legal document. All of this certainly makes managing the monthly reporting complex and cumbersome.
Our experience shows that many partners even intentionally over-report to avoid an unbudgeted SPLA license bill resulting from an audit. While they think that allows them to sleep easier tonight, the unfortunate part is they are choosing to pay a premium and sacrificing profits.
But the over-cautious, risk-averse partner still gets nailed with an audit true-up because they often are over-reporting in one area and under-reporting in another. Microsoft then pursues the under-reporting license gap retroactively back as much as five years in their favor only, and they are able to brush away the over payments because of their limited return policy.
In a recent real-life example, a Partner shared with us their audit report that showed relatively small under-reporting but more than $450K in over-reporting. That’s a lot of profit never realized at the expense of attempting to be compliant.
So back to the million-dollar question: How do you ensure compliance and not sacrifice profits?
Here’s the answer. You must have:
1. SPLA license expertise
2. The right tools and processes
3. Monthly review of both software and hardware deployments and configurations
But reality is SPLA Partners don’t -- and really shouldn’t -- have these capabilities in-house. These functions should be outsourced because the knowledge, time, and budget required to be proficient in each will gobble up the already-slim margins SPLA partners are forced to work under.
By outsourcing your SPLA reporting life cycle, Service Providers experience immediate savings in time and money and still achieve that peace of mind – the elimination of the risk of catastrophic audit findings.
With its more than 30 years of SPLA license and audit experience, Altaris Cloud automates the inventorying of your environments, interprets the data, and optimizes your reporting every single month. We also build the audit trail Microsoft auditors require, meaning the audit can be completed in a matter of days vs. months or years!
So the prospective client turned into an Altaris client, and we changed his mind in short order that there is a way to be compliant in SPLA, so that you don’t under-report and you don’t over-pay.
Let us show you how it can be done! Schedule your free 30-minute evaluation to see how.
As Always,