For CFO & controlling
Microsoft licenses are highly volatile OPEX: NCE dates, commitments, true-ups, and simultaneous demand from security and collaboration. Classic finance control hits limits when IT numbers come from portals, PSA tools and spreadsheets that contradict each other in every meeting. CHAOS consolidates derivation on Microsoft sources and versioned rules. You get defensible spend trends, savings scenarios and risk indicators for over-licensing—including evidence that auditors and internal review can interpret without maintaining a parallel “finance truth” in tables.
Transparency for budget, forecast and negotiations
Budget cycles need consistent assumptions: which user groups are truly billable? Where is unused capacity? Which scenarios are realistic before an NCE renewal? CHAOS quantifies such questions on the same logic you later use for governance and audit. Microsoft conversations become more factual: instead of isolated IT estimates you have defensible scenarios and savings bands, including documentation of assumptions taken.
- Spend trends and year comparisons from a consolidated basis
- Scenarios for downgrades, bundle changes and leave / garden-leave rules
- Material for CFO talks and board preparation
Billable user, ELP and close relevance
Billable-user definitions differ by product, contract and partner model. CHAOS helps encode those definitions in rules and surface variance—instead of hiding them implicitly in manual lists. For year-end and internal control: can you explain why a line moved up or down? With versioned rules and exports that explanation becomes traceable instead of interpretive.
- Traceable mapping of accounts to billable profiles
- ELP view from Microsoft signals instead of stale inventories
- Exports and evidence packs for auditors and group controlling
Risk, reserves and internal control
Over-licensing ties up capital; under-licensing is compliance risk. CHAOS makes both measurable: indicators for expensive default bundles, duplicate add-ons, and hints at critical gaps before security workloads. You align provisions, investment budgets and IT project priorities better—without licensing topics living only as a black box in the IT cost center.
- Risk indicators for expensive blanket licenses and duplicate add-ons
- Prioritisation by financial lever
- A basis for internal control systems (ICS) and audit readiness
ROI, calculator and management summaries
The integrated ROI approach and management summaries are a conversation basis—not a substitute for your own enterprise parameters, but a consistent methodology from tenant data. That reduces friction between finance and IT: both reference the same KPIs and the same derivation.
- ROI calculator as a methodological complement to live data
- Short copy and metrics for steering committees
- Fewer spreadsheet iterations before NCE and budget deadlines
CHAOS — CFO-grade levers, not aggregated list-price totals.
From the field
Scenario
Controlling must reconcile forecast vs. actuals for Microsoft online costs across cost centers and regions. True-ups and NCE cycles add volatility that is hard to explain.
Why (evidence layer)
CHAOS delivers scenarios with documented assumptions and alternatives. Why answers “why exactly this amount?” with traceable levers—not aggregated list prices without context.
Before/after in EUR per month (run-rate). Annual savings = difference × 12. Figures reflect typical mid-market profiles consolidated from completed optimisation programmes (anonymised, rounded); your organisation will differ by inventory and governance.
Total before (monthly)
€ 410,000
Total after (monthly)
€ 254,200
Savings / year
€ 1,869,600
Savings
38%
Run-rate cost: before vs. after
License mix by SKU (after)
Split by Microsoft 365 / online SKUs (after — readable)
Microsoft 365 E3
€ 106,764 · 42.0%
Office 365 E1
€ 50,840 · 20.0%
Microsoft 365 F3
€ 55,924 · 22.0%
Exchange Online (Plan 1)
€ 20,336 · 8.0%
Other online SKUs / add-ons
€ 20,336 · 8.0%
Consolidated metrics from comparable customer programmes (anonymised under GDPR, rounded). This is how finance and IT teams usually read run-rate before a live tenant connect. Your authoritative view is built in the demo with your tenant.
| Total before (monthly) | 410000 |
|---|---|
| Total after (monthly) | 254200 |
| Savings / year | 1869600 |