Have Microsoft Licenses? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE)

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If you haven’t heard, changes are coming to Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE) on March 1st, 2022.

To keep up with the demand for cloud-based solutions and services, Microsoft introduced the “seat-based” model with the New Commerce Experience. NCE is the new way for invoicing subscription-based cloud solutions to accelerate digital growth and for customers to have better-aligned pricing and tools to support their digital transformation journey.

These changes can be confusing for your business to navigate—especially the pricing changes around certain Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licenses. That’s why VPLS has created this quick FAQ to answer your most-asked questions about the upcoming changes.

Have other questions or want to discuss your specific license environment with our Microsoft licensing specialists? Simply contact the VPLS team.

No. If you are interested in switching your subscription to New Commerce Experience (NCE), let us know and we will handle the subscription migration for you.

You can lock in price protection before the price increase in March 2022 by purchasing an annual commitment on New Commerce Experience or renewing at the current legacy pricing.

Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform.

While there are no price changes related to the expansion of New Commerce Experience, Microsoft has announced price increases to the following SKUs starting on March 1st, 2022:

Enterprise SKUs

Office 365 E1 is increasing to $10 per user per month (PUPM) from $8 PUPM

Office 365 E3 is increasing to $23 PUPM from $20 PUPM

Office 365 E5 is increasing to $38 PUPM from $35 PUPM

Microsoft 365 E3 is increasing to $36 PUPM from $32 PUPM

SMB SKUs

Microsoft 365 Business Basic is increasing to $6 PUPM from $5 PUPM

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is increasing to $22 PUPM from $20 PUP

There are two available term options for New Commerce Experience:

Monthly Subscriptions

With the NCE you will have the ability to purchase your Microsoft 365 licenses on a monthly basis without an annual commitment. Microsoft is now offering this to provide flexibility to customers that need to make monthly changes to their Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licenses plans and seat count. Licenses may be added or decreased at the end of each month’s term. This subscription does come at a 20% price premium increase.

Annual Subscriptions

With an annual subscription, you are committing to a 12-month term in which you can increase your licenses at any time but can only decrease licenses at the end of the term. This option comes with a 20% discount for the entire 12-month term with monthly and annual billing options.

Multi-year Subscriptions

Multi-year subscriptions will be available at a future date.

 

Yes, all monthly commitments incur a 20% price premium.

Yes, you can pay monthly for an annual contract.

You will have 72 hours from the time of purchase to decrease seat counts for a subscription term. Customers can increase their seat count at any point during their commitment for an existing subscription.

You can determine if you want a subscription(s) to auto-renew. A Subscription(s) that is set to auto-renew, will automatically renew at the end of the subscription(s) term. The 72-hour cancellation period will restart at the renewal term. If a customer does not set subscription(s) to auto-renew at the end of the term, they will need to renew the subscription(s) during the renewal period to avoid the subscription(s) from entering a “disabled” status.

Newly added seats will match the original renewal date of the subscription.

Yes, you can have both a monthly term and an annual term subscription for the  same seat-based offer at the same time.

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