The Challenge
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the largest public housing authority in North America, serving over 339,000 residents across 277 developments. With more than 10,000 employees, NYCHA operates a massive Microsoft 365 environment that had grown organically over years of renewals without systematic optimization.
Like many large government agencies, NYCHA faced a familiar pattern:
- License sprawl: Thousands of M365 licenses assigned to employees who had left the agency, changed roles, or simply didn’t need the premium tier they were assigned
- Over-provisioning: A significant percentage of users had E5 licenses when their actual usage only required E3 or even F1 capabilities
- Renewal inertia: Each Enterprise Agreement renewal essentially rubber-stamped the previous contract terms, with no independent analysis of actual usage patterns
- No dedicated SAM function: NYCHA’s IT team was focused on operations and service delivery — there was no bandwidth to conduct a comprehensive license optimization analysis
The result: NYCHA was spending significantly more on Microsoft licensing than necessary, with the excess coming directly out of budgets that could fund housing services and resident programs.
The Approach
UMS brought its 25-year Microsoft licensing expertise to conduct a rapid, focused assessment. The engagement followed UMS’s standard methodology:
Week 1: Discovery & Data Collection
- Analyzed NYCHA’s current Microsoft Enterprise Agreement terms and entitlements
- Pulled M365 usage data across all 10,000+ licensed users
- Mapped license assignments against actual feature utilization
- Identified all active, inactive, and unassigned licenses
Week 2: Analysis & Optimization Mapping
- Compared license tiers (E5, E3, E1, F1) against actual usage patterns per user
- Identified “ghost licenses” — accounts for departed employees still consuming paid licenses
- Benchmarked NYCHA’s per-user costs against UMS’s 25-year database of government Microsoft contracts
- Modeled savings scenarios (conservative, moderate, aggressive)
Week 3: Findings & Implementation Roadmap
- Presented specific, actionable findings with dollar amounts attached to each recommendation
- Provided a prioritized implementation roadmap (quick wins vs. longer-term optimizations)
- Documented compliance position to ensure all changes maintained full license compliance
The Results
$500,000+ in Immediate Savings Identified
The assessment uncovered savings across three primary categories:
| Category | Finding | Savings Impact |
|---|---|---|
| License right-sizing | 30%+ of E5 users only needed E3 features | Largest savings driver |
| Ghost license cleanup | Hundreds of licenses assigned to inactive accounts | Immediate monthly reduction |
| True-up renegotiation | Contract terms that hadn’t been revisited in multiple renewal cycles | Structural savings going forward |
Zero Disruption to Operations
The entire assessment was conducted without any interruption to NYCHA’s IT operations or employee productivity. UMS worked alongside NYCHA’s IT team, not instead of them.
Zero Upfront Cost
Under UMS’s shared-savings model, NYCHA paid nothing until savings were verified and implementation began. The risk was entirely on UMS — aligning incentives so both parties benefited from finding every dollar of waste.
The Broader Impact
NYCHA’s engagement is part of UMS’s 25-year relationship with New York City government. Across 80+ city agencies, UMS has delivered:
- $700M+ in total documented savings
- 200+ vendor contracts optimized (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, SAP, Adobe, VMware, and more)
- Zero upfront cost on shared-savings engagements
The NYCHA engagement demonstrates a pattern UMS sees across every large government M365 environment: significant, immediate savings hiding in license assignments that nobody has had the time or expertise to analyze.
What This Means for Your Agency
If your agency has more than 1,000 M365 users, the savings patterns UMS found at NYCHA almost certainly exist in your environment. The math is simple:
- 22-40% typical savings on M365 licensing for organizations that haven’t been optimized
- 3-week assessment to identify specific, actionable opportunities
- $0 upfront — UMS only gets paid from verified, implemented savings
Government agencies in New York State can engage UMS through the existing NYS procurement contract — no separate RFP required.
Ready to find your agency’s hidden savings? Book a 30-minute discovery call — no obligation, no upfront cost.