Surviving a Microsoft Audit: How to Reduce What You Pay

When an audit notice arrives, the figure the auditor eventually claims can be large. It is a starting position, not a settled bill. What you do in the early stages, above all what data you hand over and how, shapes the final number more than how compliant you were to begin with. Almost every audit finds something. The cost is decided in how the audit is run.

What it costs you

* Treating the auditor’s first figure as the amount you owe
* Handing over data early that weakens your position
* Relying on SAM tool dashboards that do not hold up against audit methodology
* Accepting the auditor’s counting method instead of challenging it
* Handling it internally past the point where help would have reduced the bill

In this event, you’ll learn:

* Why an audit is won or lost in Phase 1, the data collection stage, and what to do in the first 48 hours after the letter
* Why the figure first claimed is a starting position, and where the room to reduce it sits
* How to question the way the auditor counts, rather than accept it
* How to reduce your exposure before any audit, and when to bring in independent help