The renewal nobody reads is where the money leaks.

The licensing review

What you have. What you use. What you should be on.

Microsoft raised E3 and E5 prices on 1 July 2026, and the new E7 Frontier Suite (bundling E5, Copilot, the Entra Suite and Agent 365 into one licence) changes the upgrade maths for larger organisations. Renewals signed on autopilot this year will carry those changes unexamined. A Microsoft 365 licensing review with exhale IT covers the whole estate: user counts, assigned licences, active usage, feature overlap with third-party tools you are paying for separately, and the correct tier for your actual requirements. Timing confirmed on the first call, and we stick to it.

• Licence audit and right-sizing: remove ghost licences, match tiers to actual usage
• Third-party tool overlap: identify where Microsoft 365 already includes what you are paying for elsewhere
• Renewal timing: the review works whether you are mid-term or approaching renewal
• No obligation: send us the renewal document. If it is already right, we will say so

Business Premium vs Business Standard

For most businesses, the question is not whether to upgrade. It is whether you already should have.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Intune, Defender for Business, Conditional Access and Azure Active Directory Premium P1: features that most organisations under 300 seats are paying for separately through third-party tools, or simply going without.

• Business Standard: core apps and cloud services; no advanced security or device management
• Business Premium: everything in Standard, plus mobile device management via Intune, Defender for Business endpoint protection, Conditional Access policies and information protection

What we supply

The full Microsoft stack, supplied through exhale IT.

• Microsoft 365 Business plans: Basic, Standard, Premium; all seat counts
• Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans: E3, E5, the new E7 Frontier Suite and F-series for larger organisations
• Azure: planning, provisioning and ongoing CSP billing
• Microsoft Intune: device management and compliance policy
• Microsoft Defender: Defender for Business, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365
• Microsoft Surface hardware: supplied alongside licensing where required
• Copilot for Microsoft 365: readiness assessment before seat commitment

Billing is handled through exhale IT as your Microsoft reseller. Your tenant, your data, your admin access. Nothing changes about how your team uses Microsoft 365.

Renewal governance

Before you sign anything, let us benchmark it.

Renewals should be reviewed, not rubber-stamped. exhale IT can review your current licensing position before you commit, independently, without a management contract, without switching your primary IT provider. The review is the service.

• Timing: confirmed when you send the renewal over
• What you send: your current renewal document or licence report from your Microsoft admin portal
• What you get: a written view on whether the licensing matches your requirements and where the savings or gaps are

This is what having a Technology Quartermaster in your corner looks like.