Microsoft’s NCE & Price Changes

We previously communicated back in November 2021 (via an e-mail message) about changes coming to the Microsoft 365 platform, and how it will now be a part of Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE). This NCE comes with changes to both pricing, and term commitments.

This post will detail the changes happening, and what to expect under this New Commerce Experience.

 

 

Price Changes

 

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic
  • Increase of $1/user/month under annual commitment.
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
  • Increase of $2/user/month under annual commitment.
• Office 365 E1
  • Increase of $2/user/month under annual commitment.
• Office 365 E3
  • Increase of $3/user/month under annual commitment.
• Office 365 E5
  • Increase of $3/user/month under annual commitment.
• Microsoft 365 E3
  • Increase of $4/user/month under annual commitment.
• All Other Subscriptions
  • Pricing will remain the same under annual commitments.
  • All monthly subscriptions will have a 20% premium over annual commitments.

 

 

Term Changes

 

Historically, Microsoft has never enforced any term commitments, which allowed customers to make license changes, decrements, and cancellations to subscriptions at any point during the terms. Moving forward this will no longer be the case, and customers are locked in for the full term, thus they will be unable to downgrade license types or quantities during the term, and may only upgrade to applicable licenses and/or increase quantities during the term.

 

These changes apply both to annual terms as well as monthly terms.

 

 

Other Considerations

 

• Commitment Terms & Payment Options
  • Annual – Commit to annual terms (saves money, requires upfront payment)
  • Monthly – Flexible monthly terms (20% premium, pay month to month)
• No Decrements or Cancellations Through Term
  • This applies both to annual and monthly terms, you cannot downgrade or cancel mid-term.
• Seats Added Co-Terminate & Prorate
  • Seat increments mid-term are prorated and will add to the total billable quantity, and will co-terminate with other seats on that subscription.
• Some Products Annual Only
  • Microsoft has decided that not all subscriptions will be available with monthly terms! Those subscriptions will either need to be paid annually, or upgraded to subscriptions that offer monthly terms.
  • New subscriptions will be evaluated for commitment terms on a per-request basis.
• Evaluations & Renewals
  • Products will auto-renew, and renewals are the only time at which cancellations or quantity changes can be made before you are locked back into the commitment for the term.
  • Our team will work to communicate annual renewal dates via automated notifications as they approach so you can make adjustments as needed before the new terms begin.
• Commitment Timelines
  • Commitment timelines begin at the date of purcahse on a per-subscription basis.
  • You may have multiple subscriptions all terminating at different dates throughout the year.

 

 

Planning

 

NOTE: All customers will move from their existing monthly terms to NCE monthly terms where available unless otherwise discussed with Computing Technologies prior to March 1st, 2022.

Existing monthly subscription customers will notice minimal changes to invoices, and in some cases may not see a change at all.

 

If you are a customer on an annual commitment already, our team will be reaching out soon to discuss plans for your subscriptions.

We will also be proactively reaching out to customers who are on subscriptions that will not be available for monthly terms.

All other customers who are on monthly terms now will carry over into the new monthly terms under the Microsoft New Commerce Experience.

 

 

Timeline

 

January 10, 2022 – NCE General Availability
March 01, 2022 – Specific Subscription Price Increases (All Terms)
March 10, 2022 – New Subscriptions/Licenses via NCE Only

 

 

Questions?

 

If you have any questions, please submit a ticket and our team will reach out with answers as soon as possible.