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Cost Intelligence

Cost Intelligence is the single dashboard view of every cost-reduction lever Beak M365 License Optimizer has surfaced for the current tenant. It consolidates the headline numbers from Portfolio Optimization, Recommendations, Renewals, and Anomaly detection, then exposes each one as a drill-down link so administrators can move from "where is the money" to "what action do I take" in a single click.

Page Actions​

Four actions live at the top of the dashboard.

  • Initialise — Computes baseline cost intelligence figures for the current tenant. Run this when first onboarding a tenant or after a major sync event
  • PDF — Export the dashboard as a PDF for distribution to finance and stakeholders
  • Excel — Export the underlying tables to Excel for further analysis
  • Open optimizer — Jump to Portfolio Optimization where the underlying scenarios live

Headline KPIs​

The top row of KPI cards summarizes the cost picture in a single glance.

  • Current monthly spend — Total monthly spend, split into assigned licenses and pool waste (purchased but unassigned)
  • Realistic opportunity — Achievable annual savings the engine is confident in; clickable to drill into details
  • Plan-mix scenario ceiling — Theoretical maximum annual savings if every plan-mix recommendation is executed
  • Quick wins (top 5) — Monthly savings from the five highest-score recommendations
  • Renewals next 90d — Upcoming subscription renewal cost and count over the next 90 days
  • Anomalies — Open anomaly count, broken down by critical and warning severity

Opportunity Detail​

Two follow-on cards expand the opportunity numbers into their underlying components.

  • Per-user recs (usage) — Sum of per-user recommendations that are evidenced by actual usage data — inactive accounts, low-usage downgrades, mailbox-size-based right-sizing. Clickable to drill into the per-user list
  • License waste recovery — Cost of seats the tenant has purchased but never assigned. Every dollar here is a concrete seat in inventory waiting to be reclaimed

Where the Savings Come From​

A chart breaks the opportunity down by source so administrators can see which lever — plan-mix changes, removals, reallocations, waste recovery — contributes most to the total. Use it to prioritize which workstream to tackle first.

Monthly Cost — History + 6-Month Forecast​

A combined chart shows invoiced monthly spend over time alongside a 6-month forward forecast.

  • Invoiced — Actual invoiced cost as reconciled against uploaded CSVs
  • Predicted — Engine-generated forecast based on history and trend
  • Drift % — Variance between predicted and invoiced over the trailing window; low drift means the forecast is well-calibrated

Note: If the chart is empty, no cost history has been uploaded yet. Upload reconciliation CSVs in the Portfolio Optimization Cost reconciliation tab to populate this section.

Renewals — Next 90 Days​

A focused widget lists subscription renewals coming up in the next 90 days, so plan-mix changes can be timed to natural break points.

Note: If renewals appear to be missing, confirm that the next_lifecycle_date field is being synced for your subscriptions in the latest sync job.

Recent Anomalies​

The Anomalies widget lists notable changes against the historical baseline. When the line reads "None — baselines are stable", the engine sees no out-of-range cost or usage movement.

Top Quick Wins​

A short list of the highest-priority recommendations the engine has ranked. When the list is empty, generate recommendations from the Recommendations page to populate it.

System Health​

A health panel at the bottom confirms that the inputs feeding Cost Intelligence are themselves healthy.

  • Knowledge graph — healthy indicates the latest catalog sync succeeded and recommendations are validated against current Microsoft data. The accompanying note clarifies that these counts come from the latest sync of the catalog graph
  • Reconciliation drift — Percentage difference between 180-day predicted spend and 180-day invoiced spend; low drift confirms the forecast is calibrated against reality

Best Practices​

  • Initialise after major sync events — Run Initialise after a new tenant comes online or after a large data refresh so the baseline numbers reflect current reality
  • Upload reconciliation CSVs monthly — A monthly upload keeps the forecast band tight and the Drift indicator meaningful
  • Watch the System Health panel — A red knowledge graph status or a high reconciliation drift undermines the rest of the dashboard; address those before acting on the headline numbers
  • Use this page as your weekly check-in — Cost Intelligence is the natural starting point for a weekly cost review; the drill-down links lead to where the action actually happens
  • Export PDF for finance — The PDF export is built for stakeholders who want the headline picture without learning the tool