From OU-based over-provisioning and manual administration to automated, role-based Google Workspace license governance across a 1,200-person workforce with high seasonal turnover.
This construction company operated across multiple project sites with a workforce of over 1,200 employees - including permanent office staff, field engineers, project managers, subcontractors, and seasonal workers. Google Workspace was the collaboration backbone, with license tiers ranging from Business Starter at $7.20/user/month up to
Enterprise at $25+/user/month
Licenses were managed using Organizational Units (OUs) and manual processes that had no connection to the actual identity lifecycle. Premium Workspace tiers were assigned broadly by default. When project teams wrapped up, when contractors rotated off, or when employees left the organization, their licenses stayed active - billed, unused, and Invisible to both IT and Finance.
⚠️ The company evaluated Microsoft Azure Entra ID for Google Workspace integration. While it supported basic provisioning and synchronization, it lacked granular entitlement governance, automated license optimization, and dynamic RBAC-driven licensing. That gap is what brought them to ObservelD.
⚠️Industry context: Organizations with high employee turnover-common in construction are disproportionately affected by license sprawl. With the average enterprise already wasting 43% of its SaaS licenses, high-turnover Industries often see this figure climb significantly higher
Premium Workspace tiers assigned to all users by default - regardless of whether their role required Vault, Gemini, or Enterprise features.
High project-based turnover meant licenses regularly remained active weeks or months after employees and contractors had left - each costing up to $25+/month.
No insight into who held what license tier, why, or for how long. Finance had no accurate, real-time SaaS spend data to work from.
Temporary access for project work required manual IT tickets - averaging 5+ hours of IT effort per employee lifecycle event, per Nudge Security benchmarks.
License costs grew with headcount but never shrank with departures. SaaS spend climbed regardless of actual usage or business need.
No audit trail for entitlement decisions. No policy enforcement. With 38% of organizations unable to detect orphaned account access, the security risk was real.
Observeld connected directly to the company's HR system, Azure AD, and Google Workspace exposing every license as a governed entitlement tied to identity, role, and policy. From the moment a user was created in the HR system to the moment they were offboarded, every license decision was automated, auditable, and aligned to business need
ObserveID automatically assigns the right Google Workspace license tier based on role and department no tickets, no manual steps, no over-provisioning by default.
When a project requires a higher-tier license (e.g., Vault, Gemini), ObservelD elevates access Just-in-Time- and auto-reclaims it when the project ends. No lingering upgrades
When elevated access is no longer justified by role or policy, ObservelD automatically downgrades the license no manual review, no forgotten upgrades
Observeld instantly revokes the Google Workspace license and reclaims it for reallocation. Zero orphaned accounts. Zero ongoing billing. Zero security exposure
Licenses assigned by role and department - not by OU or blanket default.
Temporary license upgrades granted automatically and reclaimed on schedule.
Every offboarding event triggers instant license revocation - no manual step.
Complete dashboard of every entitlement - who has what, why, and since when.
Always-on audit trail for every license decision - ready for compliance reviews at any time.
Policy enforcement runs continuously - not just at provisioning time.
ObservelD's entitlement governance extends across the entire SaaS portfolio. Whether it is Google Workspace, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, Microsoft 365, or any other application connected to the identity stack, ObservelD ensures every license is governed, every entitlement is justified, and every exit triggers an automatic reclaim.
With the average enterprise wasting $9.8M annually on unused SaaS licenses (Zylo, 2025), the opportunity to recover spend extends well beyond any single application. If it has a license, ObserveID can govern it.
