As you may have heard, Microsoft has recently announced some important changes to its CSP model, including increases in licence prices and a change in name. From the start of March 2022, Microsoft CSP will become Microsoft NCE, or ‘New Commerce Experience’.
In this blog, ADM look to run you through some of the upcoming changes to expect, how they may impact your business and how you can plan ahead and reduce costs.
What’s changing with NCE?
Although we anticipate there may be more to follow. The current implications of NCE are as follows:
Global price increase
Microsoft have announced a global increase in license costs of between 9-25% (details below), starting from 1st March 2022, and all existing CSP licenses will have to convert from July 1st 2022.
Additional cost for flexibility
Currently, businesses are able increase/reduce license numbers on a month-by-month basis. Starting from the 1st of March, this will no longer be available on standard licensing agreements, and a new flexible monthly licensing option will be introduced to offer this functionality. This flexible monthly licensing option comes with an increased cost (+20%) over standard annual licensing, in addition to the global cost increase.
No refunds on mid-term cancellations & reductions
Pro-rata refunds will no longer be available to businesses looking to cancel or reduce the number of active licenses mid-term. Businesses will be required to continue to pay for the length of the termed agreement, and will be unable to reduce license numbers until renewal. Businesses will still be able to increase their license count during the termed period at the pro-rata rate.
What products are being affected?
Although we anticipate there may be more to follow, Microsoft have currently announced the following global price increases.
With a further 20% cost applying when opting for the new monthly flexible agreement.
What options are available to my organisation?
If your organisation opts into a yearly agreement before March 2022, you will be able to continue to benefit from current prices up until your next renewal.
ADM Computing are currently encouraging all businesses to:
- Agree a fixed (minimum) number of licences for 12 months by 3rd week of February, noting this number cannot be reduced for 12 months.
- If required – agree an additional number of licences that can flex up / down monthly, noting the cost will be 20% more than the fixed licences.
All ADM clients with CSP are on monthly packages (rather than insisting on annual, like other resellers do) – so you are free to initiate an agreement at the same price we have now and lock this in for 1 year.
The key differences between the two subscriptions options can be seen below:
What should you do next?
Although ADM are currently in the process of contacting all customers to discuss these changes, we encourage all existing ADM customers to get in touch with their account managers as soon as possible.
For businesses that are not currently customers of ADM, please speak to Isaac Ford-Wilson (Isaac.Ford-Wilson@adm-computing.co.uk) for advice on how to tackle these upcoming changes.
Alternatively, fill out the form below and member of the team will be in touch: