How MTA brought clarity to a complex Microsoft estate.

The Motor Trade Association has represented the New Zealand automotive industry for more than a century, and today supports around 4,000 member businesses across the country. It runs one of New Zealand's largest membership platforms on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.

Over time, that estate had grown complex and costly. Most storage and licensing arrived bundled with seats rather than as clear line items, so surplus spend was easy to miss. MTA wanted independent evidence of where cost, risk and inefficiency had built up.

Lusida traced every storage item and licence back to its source, separating real cost from bundled entitlement, and gave MTA a single view across its Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform estate. It found MTA was paying for capacity it did not use, working through paid licences seat by seat to flag unused, disabled and partner accounts, and distinguishing volatile, self-clearing file storage from genuine growth, preventing an unnecessary purchase. Alongside cost, it surfaced the exposures that mattered most, each with a concrete fix.

Through better licence utilisation and the removal of unused storage, Lusida identified the potential to reduce these costs by up to 40%. The storage savings were available immediately, while the licence reductions phase in as commitments reach renewal.