How an Engineering and Construction Firm Reclaimed $3M in On-Prem Software Licenses with CloudEagle.ai

$3M

saved in harvesting unused licenses

480

seats returned to pool

40 hrs

saved each month through automation

$3M

saved in harvesting unused licenses

480

seats returned to pool

40 hrs

saved each month through automation

Challenge

The firm ran multiple on-prem engineering and design applications on its own servers, and licenses stayed assigned long after projects ended.
IT team measured usage well, but acting on it meant emailing hundreds of users per application and harvesting manually.
Idle seats stayed assigned until the next true-up, and renewals were sized from prior-year counts, resulting in wasted spend.

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Solution

A weekly rule for each application reviews the usage data IT already has and flags licenses with no recent activity.
CloudEagle.ai emails those users, deprovisions anyone who doesn’t respond with an approval step wherever policy calls for one.
Deprovisioning updates Active Directory automatically, and the harvested licenses can be reallocated or removed before next renewal

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Result

Licenses nobody uses no longer renew. $3M was saved from harvesting unused licenses, and the rest of the spend stays with the people who use it.
480 unused licenses harvested within 45 days, and new requests are filled from licenses the company already owns, with no mid-year purchase.
IT gets 40 hours back every month, and the same monthly routine now covers cloud and AI tools too.

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Challenge

As the engineering and construction firm took on more projects, its software bill grew with it.

The applications it relied on for drafting, modeling, and project coordination ran on the company’s own servers. Every license was handed out through Active Directory, the system that decides who gets access.

As projects ended, the licenses were still assigned to users. IT could see who had stopped using each application, yet taking a license back meant emailing hundreds of people, chasing replies, and updating access one application at a time.

So most licenses stayed put until the annual renewal, and the firm paid another full year for software nobody opened. IT needed a way to take back unused licenses automatically, before the next renewal locked in the cost.

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Solution

IT builds a rule in CloudEagle.ai for each application, with no coding. The rule sets what counts as using the software, such as logging in, and how many days without it means idle.
CloudEagle.ai checks the rule against the usage reports IT already has for applications on the company’s own servers.
Everyone with no activity gets an email asking if they still need the license.
Anyone who doesn’t reply is deprovisioned automatically, and a CloudEagle.ai agent inside the company’s network makes the change in Active Directory.
Reclaimed licenses goes to someone who needs it, or IT can downsize them in the next renewal cycle saving on spend.

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Why CloudEagle.ai?

CloudEagle.ai’s license harvesting workflow already runs for SaaS and AI tools. On-prem software licenses plug into the same workflow, so the only new work is the integration.
A CloudEagle.ai agent connects securely to on-prem Active Directory, so deprovisioning happens there without manual access changes.
IT builds each on-prem rule the same way as any other rule, without code.
One process covers software on company servers, SaaS apps, and AI tools, so the team runs a single cycle.
An audit log shows who was emailed, who replied, and whose license was taken back in every cycle.

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Impact

Unused Licenses Are Harvested on Schedule

On schedule, CloudEagle.ai finds who has stopped using each application and emails them, so IT doesn’t chase replies.
Outreach and follow-ups run automatically, and IT gets 40 hours back every month for work that actually matters.
Deprovisioning updates AD group membership automatically, so IT no longer makes a separate group change for each application.

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$3M in License Spend Recovered

480 unused licenses reclaimed in 30 days, identifying $3M in recoverable license spend.
New teams use licenses the company already owns, eliminating unnecessary mid-year purchases.
Renewals backed by actual usage data. Finance enters vendor negotiations knowing how many licenses it really needs.

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True-Ups Start With Real Usage

Every true-up is sized from current seat allocation and usage data, not prior-year seat counts.
The same weekly routine now covers SaaS and AI tools too, so freeing up unused licenses is continuous, not a quarterly project.
Approvals, tickets, and responses sit in one place instead of across email threads, making reconciliation. and audits easier

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