How Grand Traverse County uncovered $68,000 in Microsoft 365 savings after deploying Dex in 10 minutes.

The Organization

Grand Traverse County, based in Traverse City, Michigan, supports around 600 employees across 27 departments — including law enforcement, the health department, and 911 services. With a complex IT environment built on Microsoft 365, Azure, and SysAid, the team manages a wide range of operational and user demands every day.

The Challenge

High-demand IT with limited time to optimize.

Like many public sector IT teams, Grand Traverse County operates in a high-demand environment with limited time and resources.

• A growing Microsoft 365 environment with layered licensing and add-ons
• Ongoing efforts to clean up and optimize systems like SharePoint
• Time-consuming administrative tasks that were difficult to prioritize

“You want to do [these tasks], but you never really seem to have time to do.”— Cliff DuPuy, Director of IT

The Approach

Deployed and delivering value in under 10 minutes.

The team deployed Dex to see how quickly it could integrate into their environment and deliver value. The result was immediate.

“It took us 9 minutes and about 30 seconds.”— Cliff DuPuy, Director of IT

Within minutes, Dex completed a full discovery of their Microsoft 365 environment and was ready to execute tasks. The team ran several analyses, including:

• Identifying Microsoft licensing SKUs and add-ons
• Reviewing user entitlements and access
• Surfacing optimization opportunities across their environment

The Results

$68,000 in identified savings from a single analysis.

One of the most impactful findings came from analyzing their Microsoft licensing structure. Grand Traverse County had been using G3 licenses with multiple add-ons. Based on Dex's insights, the team identified an opportunity to shift to G5 licensing at renewal — reducing redundancy and lowering costs.

Dex also significantly reduced the effort required to complete this work:

Why It Mattered

Surfacing insights that were already there — just buried.

For the team, the value wasn't just speed. It was the ability to quickly uncover insights that were already in their environment but difficult to surface due to day-to-day workload.

• Execute tasks they typically didn't have time for
• Identify meaningful cost savings opportunities
• Reduce dependency on manual, time-intensive processes

Trust & Security

Full visibility. Zero surprises.

Operating in the public sector, security and data control are critical. Cliff emphasized that Dex met these expectations from the start — the system operates within the organization's environment, and the team had full visibility into its behavior during deployment.

“We had no nefarious activities whatsoever… they take it very, very serious.”— Cliff DuPuy, Director of IT