The Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE)
The Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE)
This is a few years in the making (first announced back in 2018) and this is happening in a series of set stages – Phase 1 has already been launched in July 2021 which was Azure Plan. This has transformed how customers purchase Azure consumption services. Phase 2 was announced in August 2021 and this comes into effect 1st March 2022 and will change how customers purchase Seat based subscriptions: Microsoft 365, Office 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365 and Power Platform. The NCE is designed to streamline the purchasing of products and services by reducing the licensing complexity. At present there are over 30+ licensing programs and over the next few years, will reduce to three main streams.
Microsoft refer to this as a “motion” as follows:
Breadth Motion – Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) through a Partner - ideal for customers between 0-2,400 seats
Enterprise Motion – Enterprise Agreement for 2,400 seats or complex global licensing requirements
Self-Service Motion – Web Direct with Microsoft this includes both corporate and domestic customers
What are the main changes to the current CSP service?
We have broken this down to a number of bullet points although our Licensing & Cloud Manager has produced a blog on LinkedIn which can be viewed here: (4) Microsoft New Customer Experience (NCE) A Customer Guide | LinkedIn
Subscriptions will be based on a term period: from March 1st 2022, a (Monthly) Premium or 12 month term (Annual). As of July 2022, a (Multi-Year 36 month term) will also be available.
Whilst “in term” plan quantities can be increased, they cannot be reduced.
“In term” plans can only be upgraded, they cannot be downgraded.
Monthly Premium Terms will be 20% more than Annual and Multi-Year plans.
At the end of the term (72-hr window), a new term can be agreed and plans and quantities can be adjusted.
There is a 72 hrs cancellation period for all new subscriptions, after which they are tied to the agreed term.
The customer and reseller are liable for payment for the full term. Annual and Multi-Year would need upfront payment for the agreed period (12 month/ 36 months)
Price protection is enforced for 12 month and 36 months
Coming soon – auto renew facility
Please note - this is based on current information provided by Microsoft and is subject to change
Will there be future Phases?
BIST suspect that yes there will be future phases but as yet these have not been announced by Microsoft.
BIST appreciate the above is a significant change on how CSP works which currently does not enforce a term on customer usage. BIST and other resellers and distributors have fed back concerns (in particular the locking down of plans and term liability) but we also have recognise that consumption of IT technologies with the pandemic and mass adoption of the cloud has dramatically changed the technology landscape since these platforms were originally conceived.
What about current subscriptions/services?
As of January 2022, BIST will be working with all our customers to advise on their best options going forward. This will give customers time to fully understand the NCE processes and offerings – Current subscriptions would be considered “legacy” and after the 1st March 2022 any new subscriptions would need to be purchased on the new NCE/CSP Platform. As of July 2022, legacy subscriptions will be locked down and cannot be changed or altered.
What about NCE pricing?
This has not been advised but as soon as Microsoft release pricing we will speak to you individually to advise on next steps – NCE pricing will incorporate a new pricing structure with monthly subscribers paying more for month by month flexibility. NCE pricing will also absorb an announced price increase to cloud subscriptions (see next section)
1st March 2022 - Price Increase
Also announced on the same day as Phase 2 of NCE was a price increase on certain M365 and O365. This is the first increase since 2017 (which was 22%) and is explained in the link here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2021/08/19/new-pricing-for-microsoft-365/
This will come into force on the 1st March on CSP and all other purchasing methods (i.e Volume Licensing and direct with Microsoft) – we suspect that other plans may also increase in price but as yet this is not confirmed. The pricing will affect all corporate customers (not education or charity however this is subject to change). Recently we have also seen an increase of 10-15% across the board for all on-premise licensing options. This is due to rising development cost (Cloud is continuously developed) and increased global support costs. Unfortunately, we have seen most other vendors also increasing their pricing although we appreciate that businesses/organisations feel it more perhaps with Microsoft due to its mass market share. Here at BIST we will work with our customers to mitigate the impact of this price increase but please consider that we as a reseller are also impacted by these increases.
Any good news?
Yes absolutely there are several new features coming to the cloud that may compensate for some of the above changes:
Coming soon in 2022 - Visio basic and Audio conferencing will be included in all M365 Business and Enterprise plans (all sectors)
Microsoft Teams Audio Conferencing | Teleconference Software
Coming February 2022 in preview - Windows Defender for Business coming to M365 Business Premium
Early 2022 - Microsoft Endpoint Management (Intune and Autopilot)
BIST are currently working with Microsoft, Distribution and hardware vendors (HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer) to simplify the deployment process on new devices utilising Intune.
I hope this explains where we are with NCE and CSP. Please rest assured that we will work with you to assist you further with your Cloud Journey and behind the scenes we are working tirelessly on new solutions to assist our customers.
Please don’t hesitate to contact our Licensing and Cloud Manager, David Poole for further information: DDi 01274 518789 E david@bist.co.uk