Entitlement drift is invisible until the invoice or the audit.
A premium tier gets assigned for one project and stays assigned long after the project ends. A department standardizes on a license level because it was easiest at the time, not because most of the team uses what it includes. Nobody revisits the decision until a renewal notice or an audit forces the question.
The fix is not simply “cut costs.” Under-licensing carries its own consequence - compliance exposure, unsupported usage, or a scramble at true-up. The decision is to right-size deliberately, on evidence, on a cadence the organization actually keeps.
Treated as a spend-governance question rather than a procurement chore, licensing becomes something finance and technology owners can jointly explain - not a line item nobody wants to defend.