The Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is on a journey to provide unique service offerings for managed service providers. Regardless of how you buy Microsoft products and solutions, this new program will continue enabling you to digitally transform.

New Commerce Experience (NCE) explained

The New Commerce Experience (NCE) for the Microsoft CSP program is based on the ideas that made CSP the go-to for partners that provide value-add cloud solutions in the first place. The NCE provides us with new tools to manage subscriptions more easily. The rollout for the latest NCE offerings will start in Q4 2021, bringing seat-based cloud offers to the forefront of this new platform—also for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365. This launch provides partners in the CSP program with new sales capabilities, delivers operational efficiencies and drives long-term customer commitment with multiple term options.

What does this mean for you as a customer?

Microsoft’s NCE has a few important implications that customers should take note of:

• Monthly Term – New monthly-term offers from Microsoft with a price premium of 20% higher than current subscriptions for the same product for customers who need seat-count flexibility.

• Annual Term – Annual term offers with relatively competitive pricing for stable, long-term customers, better pricing predictability and higher commitment for full term period are available.

• Term Commitment – Consistent cancellation policies for seat-based offer terms in new commerce, no cancellation will be accepted and customer will be billed for full term even if customer stops using the subscription (applicable to any billing plan); If seats are added mid-term, commitment applied to those additional seats.

• Legacy Subscription – Legacy Microsoft CSP subscription will be replaced with or migrated to NCE products, therefore no more legacy Microsoft CSP products can be subscribed from Mar 2021 onwards, and existing legacy Microsoft CSP subscription will be expired by the earliest the end of Feb 2021 for monthly paid subscription, and the end of the current subscription term for upfront yearly paid subscription.
   

Selected Product Price Adjustment explained

In additional to NCE, Microsoft has also announced that the list pricing for the following commercial products of annual commitment will be globally updated from March 2022 onwards:

Considering the upcoming changes, significant impact to customers’ budget in IT expenditure could be caused without professional advice and planning in licensing and subscription management!

For better planning in protecting your best price in view of the upcoming term commitment and price change, contact us now to get free consultation for taking the right action at the right time.

Reference Sites from Microsoft:

“New Commerce Experience (NCE) for CSP” announcement
“New Pricing for Microsoft 365 Selected 6 Projects” announcement