Almost every lapse we have investigated has the same shape. Nobody dropped the ball. Several people were each holding a different part of it.
The general manager assumed the regional lead handled licensing. The regional lead assumed the finance team paid it. Finance saw an invoice with no context and queued it.
One named owner per licence solves more than any alert does. The alert tells you something is due. The owner is why somebody acts.
The second half is handover. When a manager leaves, every licence they owned needs to move at once, not as it comes up.