Navigate the new pricing and don’t get left out!
From early January there have been some major changes with Microsoft pricing, directly affecting your 365 licences. It’s important to understand these changes and to mitigate the price rises and maintain flexibility. Microsoft have now introduced a new pricing model across their Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Programme (CSP).
The previous options were a legacy billing method which included a number of separate packages – Microsoft 365, Office 365, EM+S E3/E5, Windows 10 E3/E5, Windows 365, Power Platform, Dynamics 365. Also their ‘New Commerce Experience’ (NCE) which included Azure consumption, Reservations, Software Subscriptions and Licences for Perpetual Software.
From 10 January 2022 Microsoft have made all the above mentioned offerings available through the NCE, and their plan is to discontinue Legacy billing from 1 March 2022.
What’s different?
Currently under CSP customers agree to a 12 month term, which is billed either monthly or annually. With Legacy billing you have the flexibility to use less or more licences from month to month. That means if your business changes and less licences are required you’d only get charged for those that you’d use.
Under NCE, the billing still offers the 12 month solution, but once you settle on a number of licences required you cannot decrease them. You can increase them though, but if you do you cannot return to your smaller requirement. There is an option for flexibility, but that comes at a price – approximately 20% extra for the ability to change month to month. On the flipside, if your requirements are stable over the next few years, there is a 36 month option available.
Price increases
The advantage of the 12 and 36 month options are that prices are locked for the duration. This is particularly relevant in that in August 2021 Microsoft announced an update to their commercial pricing for Microsoft 365, the first substantial increase since Office 365 was released in June 2011. This change will go into effect on 1 March 2022, and will affect all products that were previously under Legacy billing.
How can we help?
The current recommendation is to stay on Legacy billing. So, if you move your licences to Nybble prior to 1 March 2022, you will have the ability to create a brand new legacy subscription. This means a new 12 month flexible account subscription fixing the current price for a year. This could be absolutely vital. First things first, legacy billing will end on 28 February 2022. Apart from the price increases Microsoft are promising, we think it’s imperative to stay on Legacy and create a brand new subscription. This will enable you to retain that flexibility, allowing you to increase and decrease licences from month to month and only pay for what you use throughout the year. It will also lock in the cheaper price for the year.
Why purchase licences through Nybble?
As well as saving you increased fees and retaining flexibility over your options over the next year, here at Nybble we can prepare your business for the increased prices and locked in choices when you do need to jump to NCE in 12 months. It’s very important that you review what your business requirements are, especially as you will then need to stick with those subscriptions for the following year at least. When we review licence requirements for our customers it is far easier to change things on Legacy rather than NCE, and by creating an extra year to thoroughly review your licensing requirements means that we have the time to work with our customers choosing exactly the correct products for their business needs.
How can we decide on the correct Microsoft package?
At Nybble we have created a fantastic piece of software called ‘Smarter SaaS’. This allows us to have an overview, a healthcheck if you like, on your whole tenancy, to ensure that you’re using and maximising your licenses through Microsoft. This will offer a complete review. It will check you are using all the Apps as purchased, that they have been downloaded and are being used by your team as intended. It will give us a comprehensive report on how you are using your Microsoft 365 licences, so we can then offer you an informed decision on how to get maximum benefit as a business moving forward.
By going through ourselves for the licences this software and the support we offer is absolutely free, and by using the software to fine tune your requirements using Legacy we can ensure that by the time you need to use NCE you are only paying for the licences you absolutely need.
In summary
By moving to Nybble before 1 March 2022, you can take advantage of the following:
- Lock in current pricing
- Keep Flexible Terms
- Use our Free Smarter SaaS healthcheck
Nybble offer:
- MANAGED IT SOLUTIONS
- UNIFIED BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
- SOFTWARE & APP DEVELOPMENT
- AV / DIGITAL SIGNAGE
- AUTOMOTIVE
- SOLUTIONS
- NYBBLECARE
Find out more – connect with Ram Gupta on LinkedIn
Phone: 0330 002 0886
Email: enquiries@nybble.co.uk
nybble.co.uk/microsoft solutions
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