How to Optimize License Utilization

We know that one of your main responsibilities as a Salesforce Admin is to manage users and drive adoption. One important adoption metric is license utilization, which generally indicates whether users are using the available licenses. You can calculate license utilization as follows:

License Utilization = # Used Licenses / # Available Licenses

Here, we define a Used License as a license that is assigned to a user, and an Available License as a license that can be assigned to a user.

While a high license utilization rate is one indicator of product adoption, it doesn’t indicate whether those licenses are actually being used.

In this post, we’ll show you how to optimize license utilization by reassigning licenses away from users who aren’t using them. The main steps to do this are to:

1. Track users who aren’t using their licenses.
2. Identify the licenses assigned to them.
3. Reassign those unused licenses to other users.

Track users who aren’t using their licenses

If a user doesn’t log in to the app regularly, this is a signal that a user might not need their assigned licenses as much as other users do. Identify those less active users by reporting on users who haven’t logged in to the app within the last 30 days.

1. Create a report using the Users standard report type.

2. In the Filters panel, add a filter for Last Login not equal to LAST 30 DAYS.

3. In the Outline panel, add the column Full Name.

4. Add a row-level formula with Column Name Days Since Last Login. Set the Formula Output Type to Number, Decimal Points to 0, and Formula to TODAY() — DATEVALUE(LAST_LOGIN).

5. Click on the Days Since Last Login column, and select Sort Descending.

6. Save the report with the name Users NOT Logged In Within Last 30 Days, and Run the report to see the list of all users who haven’t logged in recently.

Identify the licenses currently assigned to those users

Now that we’ve identified that the above two users haven’t logged in recently, we’ll now identify the licenses assigned to these less active users.

1. Create a custom report type using Permission Set License Assignments as the primary object.

2. Create a report based on that new PSL Assignments report type.

3. In the Outline panel, in the Columns section, add the fields Assignee: Full Name, Permission Set License: Developer Name, and User License: Name.

4. In the Filters panel, set the Last Modified Date filter to the range All Time, and add the filter Assignee: Full Name equals “”.

5. Save the report with the name Licenses Assigned to Users, and Run the report. On the Report Run page, click the Filters button, then click the Assignee: Full Name filter. Type in the full name of a user who hasn’t logged in within the last 30 days.

6. Click Apply.

Consider reassigning those unused licenses to other users

Now that you have identified the users who haven’t logged in recently, and know which licenses are assigned to them, you should evaluate reassigning the licenses to new or different users who are more likely to use those licenses. You’re one step closer to ensuring licenses are fully utilized in your org!

What other licensing-related information would be useful for you to see or report on? Please send feedback to skaates@salesforce.com.

Resources

• Trailhead: User Adoption Metrics
• AppExchange: Salesforce Adoption Dashboards (Available for free from Salesforce Labs)