No matter how the market's doing, smart businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs and boost efficiency. This is a year-round activity focused on building a lean, resilient operation that thrives in any economy.
Whenever we assist customers with technology spend audits, one of the first places we look is their existing software subscriptions. Here, it’s not uncommon to find overlapping tools—multiple chat apps, project trackers, file sharing platforms, and automation tools—all doing essentially the same thing. These purchases often fly under the radar because they were added piecemeal over time or brought in by individual departments that didn't realize alternative options existed.
Since many of these services are built on per user licensing models, the charges can add up quickly. Indeed, most of our customers are surprised to see just how much duplicate spending is hiding in plain sight. Of course, that surprise quickly turns into shock whenever we inform them that many of the tools they’re paying for externally are already included with their Microsoft 365 subscription (at no additional cost). Once we shine a light on what’s included, the opportunities to consolidate and save become hard to ignore.
That’s why one of the smartest moves you can make is to revisit what’s already included in your Microsoft 365 subscription. You might be paying for more software than you need, simply because no one realized the functionality was already there. In this article, we’ll show you seven practical ways to unlock savings using services already included in your Microsoft 365 subscription.
File & Document Storage
This is an area where we often find immediate savings opportunities. Between the 1 TB of personal storage included for each user with OneDrive and the shared storage included with SharePoint Online, users should have plenty of space to store documents, images, and other files. And, they can security access these files from anywhere in the world.
Figure 1: Accessing Files from OneDrive
Tapping into this built-in storage can help you save money in a couple of different ways:
It can eliminate the need for third-party services like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Apple iCloud.
It can pave the way for decommissioning legacy file servers or expensive hardware appliances like NAS storage systems.
Besides the immediate benefits of reducing operating costs, standardizing document management processes around OneDrive and SharePoint helps to streamline how content is created, accessed, and shared across the organization. Plus, it also unlocks powerful capabilities like advanced information protection, sensitivity labeling, and intelligent search and classification. And perhaps most importantly, it lays the groundwork for using your organization's institutional knowledge as fuel for future agentic AI solutions.
Planning & Collaboration Tools
Microsoft 365 provides several tools for project planning and team collaboration activities. With Planner, Loop, and Microsoft Teams, teams can coordinate tasks, share updates, and collaborate on content in a way that’s accessible, integrated, and easy to use.
These tools are mobile-friendly and highly accessible, enabling your teams to stay connected whether they're in the office or in the field. And, since they're part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, they support collaboration right in the flow of work so there's no need to jump between separate platforms.
Planner provides a simple, visual way to manage task lists and assignments across teams. Users can create boards, buckets, and checklists to track progress and delegate work. The features can be used to manage everything from team meetings to departmental initiatives. It’s an approachable alternative to tools like Trello or Asana, especially if you're looking to take full advantage of your existing Microsoft investment(s).
Loop introduces a more flexible and dynamic way to collaborate, using components like task lists, status updates, and check-ins that can live inside Teams chats, Outlook emails and meetings, or dedicated Loop workspaces. It’s a great fit for fast-moving teams that need to co-author content in real time without switching back-and-forth between apps.
If you're currently investing in tools like Trello, Asana, Basecamp, or Monday.com, Planner and Loop are great options to reduce software sprawl and also simplify your tech stack.
In practice, we’ve seen teams apply these tools effectively across a variety of use cases, from sales and marketing planning to internal projects, field operations, and departmental task tracking. And, as we'll see in a moment, there are compounding benefits to building on these tools because once your work is happening in Microsoft 365, it becomes much easier to orchestrate and automate more complex processes using other parts of the Microsoft Cloud. Whether it's triggering workflows in Power Automate, surfacing insights in Power BI, or integrating data from external systems, each layer adds momentum—creating a kind of collaboration flywheel that drives greater efficiency over time.
Data Analysis with Power BI
When it comes to making sense out of business data, there's no better analytics tool on the market than Power BI. And, if you're on a Microsoft 365 E5 plan, you're already licensed for Power BI Pro.
We find that the Power BI licenses bundled with Microsoft 365 E5 plans often go unused because customers aren’t quite sure what Power BI does or how to get started with it. However, once we show them how easy it is to connect Power BI to Excel, SharePoint, or popular SaaS apps like HubSpot and Salesforce, indifference quickly turns to excitement.
With Power BI Pro, users can create interactive reports and dashboards that pull in data from a wide range of sources including Excel files, cloud-based apps like QuickBooks, and even home-grown databases or custom APIs. These reports can be shared via the web, embedded in Microsoft Teams, or pinned to SharePoint pages, making insights readily available where your team already works.
Figure 2: Building Interactive Dashboards Using Power BI
While there are some storage limits with these licenses, most small to mid-sized organizations are surprised to discover how far they can stretch them. In most cases, as long as you're not trying to upload an entire database, there's plenty of space to run a variety of operational reports. In the right circumstances, Power BI can even serve as a low-cost alternative to standing up a traditional data warehouse and this can amount to big savings for organizations looking to centralize reporting without a massive infrastructure investment.
If you're like most organizations and have data scattered across various systems, Power BI can help you connect the dots between these systems, turning siloed data into meaningful insights. Whether you're tracking sales performance, operational metrics, or customer engagement, Power BI can help you build a clearer, more complete picture of what’s really going on in your organization.
Power Apps & Power Automate
Some Microsoft 365 plans include limited-use licenses for Power Apps and Power Automate, two key components of Microsoft’s Power Platform. While these licenses don’t provide full access to every connector or premium capability, they do allow you to build powerful apps and automation solutions that work seamlessly with Microsoft 365 services like Outlook, Teams, Excel, and SharePoint.
Power Apps is a low-code development platform that significantly reduces the time it takes to create custom business apps. Power Apps are great for building spreadsheet replacements, mobile-friendly data entry forms, and lightweight business applications that can be shared across your organization. If your team still works with a lot of paper-based forms, Power Apps can save you a lot of time and money.
Figure 3: A Sample Employee Kudos Power App
Power Automate operates more behind the scenes, unlocking the ability to create automated workflows that connect your apps and services together. It can handle everything from simple approvals and notifications to complex, multi-step processes that span departments and systems. For example, you can automate onboarding tasks, route service requests, or sync data between SharePoint and Teams.
Figure 4: Building Workflow Processes with Power Automate
While Power Platform development does require some time investment, a recent study by Forrester Research found that Power Platform adoption resulted in up to 25% time savings per employee through streamlined business processes and automation. This can lead to big savings and free your team up to work on more value-added tasks.
Survey Tool Replacements with Microsoft Forms
A simple, but frequently overlooked tool is Microsoft Forms. As the product name suggests, Forms is a web-based tool that you can use to build all kinds of forms:
Customer feedback forms
Polls
Quizzes
Internal surveys
Forms is easy to use, mobile-friendly, and doesn’t require any technical expertise. This makes it approachable for teams across the organization. Responses are collected in real-time and can be viewed directly in Forms or exported to Excel or Power BI for deeper analysis. You can even integrate Forms with Power Automate to trigger follow-up actions like sending notifications, logging responses in SharePoint, or kicking off approval workflows.
Figure 5: A Sample Sign-Up Form Developed with Microsoft Forms
Depending on your requirements, Forms can effectively replace third-party tools like SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, or Typeform, especially for internal use cases. It’s particularly handy for HR teams conducting employee engagement surveys, marketing teams collecting event feedback, or managers running quick team check-ins.
Device Management with Intune
Up till now, we've mostly focused on M365 services that deliver value directly into the hands of the business. However, there are also some goodies included in Microsoft 365 plans for the IT side of the house. For example, Microsoft Intune, included with many Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans, provides a cloud-based approach to managing devices across a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. These capabilities are especially valuable in hybrid environments where employees use a mix of desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Figure 6: Device Management with Microsoft Intune
With Intune, we can centrally manage device settings, deploy security policies, and support both corporate-owned and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenarios. It offers the flexibility to apply consistent configurations and access controls while helping protect organizational data.
Intune can also help reduce routine IT workload by enabling remote deployment of software, patches, and updates. This can streamline support tasks and ensure that devices remain compliant without requiring hands-on intervention.
Key capabilities of Intune include:
Device configuration and policy management across multiple platforms
Software and update deployment
Conditional access and compliance enforcement
Remote wipe and reset options for lost or compromised devices
When you think about the amount of time it takes to manage these tasks manually, Intune can deliver some real internal efficiencies. Plus, when used properly, it can help you put the right security controls in place to protect your organization from cybersecurity attacks.
Cybersecurity Tools
Microsoft 365 includes a growing set of built-in cybersecurity tools designed to help you protect users, data, and devices without the need for a patchwork of third-party solutions. These tools support the implementation of a modern, layered security strategy that integrates tightly with your Microsoft 365 environment:
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers robust protection against phishing campaigns, malware, and spam—making it a strong alternative to third-party email security solutions like Barracuda or Proofpoint. It includes safe links and attachments scanning, real-time threat detection, and attack simulation training to help improve user awareness.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides advanced endpoint protection, helping detect and respond to threats across managed devices. It uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify suspicious activity, while also offering tools for endpoint detection and response (EDR).
Microsoft Purview Information Protection (formerly part of Microsoft Information Protection) helps classify, label, and protect sensitive content across documents, emails, and cloud storage regardless of whether data is at rest or in transit. Combined with Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies, these tools help ensure that sensitive information stays secure and doesn’t leave the organization unintentionally.
While these services might not completely eliminate the need for third-party security add-ons, we find that they significantly reduce the need for overlapping tools. This is especially true for things like email protection, endpoint security, and data loss prevention. In our experience, the built-in capabilities in Microsoft 365 are more than sufficient to establish a strong security foundation, simplify management, and lower overall costs. Before investing in additional security platforms, it's worth taking a closer look at what you already have access to through your Microsoft 365 subscription.
Closing Thoughts
Cutting costs doesn’t always mean cutting corners. In many cases, it’s simply about making better use of the tools you already have.
If you're already invested in Microsoft 365, there's a lot of functionality worth exploring. From file storage and collaboration to automation, data analysis, and cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 includes a wide range of services that are often underused or overlooked. By tapping into these built-in capabilities, you can streamline operations, reduce reliance on third-party tools, and empower your teams to work smarter and more securely.
The tools are there—you’re already paying for them. The real challenge is knowing what you’ve got and how to use it effectively. Hopefully, this gave you a few ideas to explore. Now might be a good time to dust off those licenses and start getting more out of your Microsoft 365 subscription.
