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Automating software license utilization reporting
Short answer
Before a licence renewal, IT joins the list of assigned accounts with activity reports. The vendor's report is often enough if the company has one environment. Automation makes sense with several vendors, different identifiers and talks with managers about their needs. Each unused seat at $25 costs about €22 a month, so 20 such seats cost €446.
How we workDetails ↓
- 01Call30 minutes with an engineer, free
- 02PrototypeA working system on your process and data, free
- 03ImplementationTarget and fixed price in the contract; 50% at signing
- 04Acceptance50% once the agreed target is met
- net for the automation of one process, build paid once
- from €3,000
- from signing the contract to acceptance
- 2–6 weeks
- free prototype on your cases
- €0
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Author: Syntalith · 3 min read
Statistics
Licences and AI tools: statistics 2026
€446
a month is what 20 unused seats at $25 cost. A report before renewal shows which accounts need a conversation. Scenario.
15.1%
According to Eurostat (2025), 15.1% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU used generative AI tools for work.
32.7%
According to Eurostat (2025), 32.7% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU used generative AI tools in the previous 3 months.
50%
According to the European Commission (2026), half of EU SMEs and mid-caps name high investment costs as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 578 (2026) ↗
52.7%
According to Eurostat (2025), 52.7% of EU enterprises used paid cloud computing services.
Source: Eurostat, 53% of EU enterprises used paid cloud services in 2025 (2025) ↗
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
One account, several different signals
An employee has an office suite assigned. The export shows she uses email, but records no activity in another product of the same licence. A manager who looks only at the second report will take the account for unused.
A good view shows the signals separately, with the product name and the observation period. IT confirms that the data concerns the same person, and the manager explains her needs.
- A tool may serve a task done once a quarter
- The latest data may not be in the report yet
- A missing line in the export does not mean no use
- Opening an app, doing a task and an active account are different measures
- The name of the measure and its source stay with the result
The vendor's report may be enough
Microsoft 365 offers an active users report with data per product and an export. The report covers a chosen period and does not show activity in real time.
One environment, one person prepares the review
the vendor's report
€0
Several vendors, accounts have to be linked to departments
report automation
from €3,000
The licences are there, but the team rarely uses the tool
a rollout and training on tasks
from €1,150
If the report confirms rare use and the problem is bringing the tool into daily tasks, read the article how to increase AI use after buying licences.
What a licence utilisation report costs and what it gives
- Seats in the plan
- 200
- Seats with no confirmed need after the talks
- 20 (10%)
- Cost of one seat
- $25 a month
- Saving on licences
- 20 × $25 = $500 (€446)
- Preparing the review by hand today
- 12 h (€419)
Payback of a €3,000 automation
6.7 months
The number of seats to release is the scenario's assumption: managers take the final decision. Converted at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat.
Ordinary rules handle joining identifiers and fetching reports. AI helps to gather the managers' comments into a short summary, but it will not replace the decision on the access needed.
An activity report is data about people
A usage report shows how specific people work. Limit it to its purpose, which is a decision about licences: a manager sees the state of the accounts in their team, without a detailed work history of each person. Do not use this summary to assess employees without separate agreements with HR and the data protection officer.
A good report says which accounts need a conversation and does not judge who "works little". Access to it is for the people who decide on licences: IT, managers and the person who approves the budget. Rare use often means missing training or a tool that does not fit the tasks, so on its own it does not prove a licence is unnecessary.
Renewal is the moment to change the plan
The renewal date is the best moment to change both the number of seats and their type. Some people can move to a cheaper seat, and a few to a more expensive one if the limit interrupts their work. In ChatGPT Business and Claude Team, Standard and Premium seats can be mixed in one workspace, so you decide separately for each role.
The first scope
- 01SourcesLicence assignments and usage reports from each vendor, with the data period.
- 02Linking accountsRules for joining identifiers with the user register and departments.
- 03A view for managersSignals shown separately, with the product name and a link to the data.
- 04ExplanationsManagers' comments gathered next to each account.
- 05DecisionA list of seats to change before the renewal date.
Start the report three months before the renewal date. That is the time needed to gather data from a full period, talk to managers and change the number of seats at the vendor before the new commitment. The first project can be limited to one licence plan and one group of users. For the call, bring two summaries you join by hand today and a question a manager cannot answer from them. A similar problem with cloud costs is described in the article on cloud costs by project.
Worked example · Scenario
How we count the payback: reporting
We run the same count for your licences in the free analysis.
€1,815
a month for 12 h a week of report preparation
Payback: 1.9 mo.
The hours for each firm size and checking in 15% of the old time are our assumptions. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat, for companies with 10 or more employees. We measured the model cost in our report system: a commentary with a check of the figures costs about €0.0002, converted at the NBP rate of 21 October 2026 and the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026.
See the full calculation →
