The GP runs lean. The portfolio runs hot. Microsoft prices each portco individually and quietly accumulates the inefficiency. We unlock GP level visibility, then negotiate consolidation, value creation playbooks, and add on diligence economics that compound across the fund. $420M+ recovered. 340+ engagements. Buyer side only.
GPs see fund level expense lines. They rarely see the full Microsoft footprint across forty portcos in three sectors. That blind spot is the negotiation lever.
Sponsor IT teams own a small EA for the GP and operating partners. The portfolio sits across dozens of independent Microsoft agreements, each negotiated separately, often by an MSP or LSP without visibility to the next portco down the hall. The aggregate spend is rarely modeled.
Buy and hold sponsors with a five to seven year hold period have time to consolidate portco Microsoft estates onto unified agreements, shared SKU strategy, and pooled negotiation leverage. Done well, the program returns multiples on the GP's IT shared service investment.
Add on acquisitions inherit Microsoft contracts, true up exposure, and audit risk that diligence rarely surfaces. A two week diligence workstream covers the difference between a clean acquisition and a surprise true up.
Carve out transactions create transitional service agreements, novation conversations with Microsoft, and structural decisions about which entity inherits which licenses. The wrong choice locks in waste for years.
Sponsors who consolidate buying through a single LSP or move to direct MCA E contracts unlock concession bands LSPs do not pass through. The savings compound across the portfolio.
Top quartile mega cap sponsors on portfolio wide M365 consolidation. Middle market PE on Dynamics and Power Platform standardization across portcos. Growth equity firms on Azure consumption normalization. Family offices on GP level optimization. One playbook, scaled to the AUM and hold period.
We work with sponsor IT, operating partners, and portco CIOs together. The playbook scales from a single mid market add on diligence pass to a multi year portfolio wide value creation program.
Sponsors have for years extracted value from portcos through ERP consolidation, payroll consolidation, banking consolidation, and cyber insurance consolidation. Microsoft licensing has lagged that conversation. It should not. The dollar leverage on a forty portco portfolio of Microsoft contracts is typically larger than any single ERP migration, with far shorter time to value.
The model that works is a GP led shared service. Standardized SKU strategy, pooled buying through a chosen LSP or direct MCA, transparent chargeback to portcos, and an annual posture review that catches new acquisitions before they go on autopilot. Implementation is twelve to twenty weeks. ROI shows up in the first renewal cycle.
A target add on can carry Microsoft true up exposure that exceeds the working capital adjustment in the SPA. Audit triggers carry over. Multiyear EA commitments with steep ramps carry over. Defender or Sentinel commits sized to a transformation the target never executed carry over. None of this is exotic. All of it is overlooked.
A two week diligence pass covers the difference between a clean acquisition and a surprise eight figure liability that lands six months post close. We have run dozens of these workstreams. The cost is rounding error against deal size. The protection is not.
Anonymized but verifiable on reference call. From an active engagement closed in the trailing twelve months.
The GP commissioned a portfolio wide visibility exercise. We found $38M in annualized Microsoft spend across 38 portcos with six different LSPs, four different EA cycles, and at least eleven duplicate Defender entitlements. Twelve months of disciplined consolidation work later, the portfolio moved to a unified buying program through a single LSP with direct MCA fallback for the largest portcos.
Operating partner asked us to run the same play on cyber insurance next. The math was that compelling.Head of Portfolio Operations · Mega cap private equity sponsor
Every engagement produces written deliverables your CIO, CFO, audit committee, and board can read directly. Nothing lives only in our heads.
Board ready narrative of where the contract sits, what leverage exists, and what the disciplined ask is. Signed off jointly with internal stakeholders.
Concession data from signed contracts in your sector, your spend tier, and your renewal quarter. Sourced from active practice engagements.
Calendar of milestones, internal alignment checkpoints, Microsoft engagement touch points, and decision dates from posture through signature.
Live tracker of every ask, every counter, every Microsoft concession landed, and every term we have not yet closed. Updated through signature.
Two analyst calls with the operating partner team. We scope what a portfolio wide visibility exercise looks like for your hold period and your sector mix.