Customer Success Story

From visibility to control across a global Microsoft environment

How Kadant took ownership of security and licensing across operations in more than 20 countries, without adding headcount.

Client
Kadant Inc.
Sector
Industrial Manufacturing
Footprint
Operations in 20+ countries
20+
countries brought into one licensing and security view
Full
visibility into Microsoft entitlements, usage, and spend
Clear
security roadmap, broken down by tool, site, and priority
FinOps
ongoing engagement for long-term cost accountability
Overview

Kadant Inc. is a global supplier of high-value, critical components and engineered systems used in process industries worldwide. With operations in over 20 countries, Kadant designs and manufactures industrial equipment and technologies for the paper, tissue, and recycling sectors.

Kadant set out to assess and enhance their Microsoft security posture while gaining visibility into software usage and licensing across their global IT environment.

The Challenge

Uncertainty around security and licensing

Kadant's global IT team lacked a comprehensive understanding of their Microsoft security posture. While they had deployed Microsoft 365 and Defender, coverage, configuration, and exposure across entities remained unclear. Several factors compounded the problem:

Licensing visibility
The organization was uncertain whether they were over-licensed, under-licensed, or misaligned. With a large and diverse user base across global sites, identifying owned versus needed licenses proved difficult.
EA constraints
Kadant was locked into an Enterprise Agreement structure that did not match actual user work patterns: limited mid-term flexibility, no ability to right-size licensing, and little granular control for a distributed global workforce.
Global complexity
Independent purchasing decisions by IT leads in different countries meant no centralized view of user licensing, device management, or policy enforcement.
Resource constraints
The lean corporate IT team had competing priorities and insufficient time to manually audit security tools and licensing data across subsidiaries.
“Before working with CloudServus, we didn't have a clear understanding of what we owned or how we were using it. They brought visibility and gave us control.”
Edward Francoeur · Director of Global Platforms and Services, Kadant Inc.
Initial Engagement

A two-pronged assessment

CloudServus opened the engagement with two parallel assessments across every global entity:

Microsoft Licensing Assessment
Comprehensive analysis of current Microsoft 365 entitlements, usage, and spending across all global entities, including SKU ownership mapping, user role alignment, and identification of waste and overspend.
Cloud Security Assessment
A security deep dive into Microsoft 365 and Defender configurations revealed how each global entity used tools like Defender for Endpoint, Identity Protection, and Purview, highlighting major deployment and enforcement gaps.
“They showed us where the gaps were in our Microsoft tenant and helped us start building a real security roadmap. It was eye-opening.”
Edward Francoeur · Director of Global Platforms and Services, Kadant Inc.
The Solution

Building a foundation for centralized governance

The assessments turned into concrete deliverables Kadant could act on:

An actionable security roadmap
A clear path to improving Microsoft security tool enforcement, broken down by tool, site, and priority level.
Clear visibility into licensing gaps
Needed SKUs identified by user, duplication detected, unused licenses flagged, and strategic recommendations for reducing spend without compromising security or productivity.
Stakeholder education across entities
Collaborative workshops with international IT leads to walk through findings and ensure shared understanding and buy-in.
Executive-level insights
Final reports presented to finance and executive leadership with the data to plan smarter global licensing and security investments.
The Results

A clear picture, and a path forward

The engagement delivered clarity Kadant's lean IT team could not have produced alone:

  • Security confidence. Kadant now understands its Microsoft 365 security posture across all global entities and has a roadmap for enhancement.
  • Licensing clarity. The company uncovered redundant spend and received an optimization plan for Microsoft license usage across its user base.
  • Stronger governance. The engagement set the stage for broader IT standardization and centralization, starting with identity, device management, and future endpoint security rollouts.

That initial success laid the groundwork for an ongoing relationship, including a deeper FinOps engagement for long-term cost optimization and accountability across the cloud environment.

“They don't feel like a vendor. They feel like an extension of our team.”
Edward Francoeur · Director of Global Platforms and Services, Kadant Inc.
Ready to chart your path

Struggling to get clarity around your Microsoft licensing or security posture?

We'll show you exactly what you own, what you're using, and where the gaps are, before anything is committed.

Talk to an Expert