What you need to know about Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE)

Microsoft is changing the way in which customers manage and purchase licences through their Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP). 

The new NCE structure was designed to reduce the complexity of purchasing licences for organisations. Microsoft is offering promotions to encourage legacy migrations over to NCE, these are available on both monthly and annual commitments.

In addition to the New Commerce Experience, Microsoft has also announced that its pricing is changing from March 1st 2022 for organisations using the following licence types:

• Microsoft Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Office 365 E1, E3 and E5
• Microsoft 365 E3

But don’t worry, there is a way to avoid this price increase. If you move to an NCE annual subscription before March 1st, then you lock the price for a year.

If you chose to move after March 1st then you will be subject to the price increase.

Key dates you need to know:

• 10th January 2022 – Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE) launched.
• 1st March 2022 – Price increases across Microsoft 365 licencing begins. From March both renewals and new subscriptions must be purchased through NCE.
• 10th March 2022 – New subscriptions are only available through NCE.
• 1st July 2022 – Renewals only through NCE.
• 1st July 2023 – All subscriptions must be converted to NCE.

New NCE subscription options

Microsoft has now introduced monthly subscriptions which run alongside any annual subscriptions. Just remember, you can mix annual and monthly subscriptions to suit your organisation’s needs.

Here’s a summary of the new NCE subscription types available:

Monthly subscription –

You can still purchase your Microsoft 365 licences monthly for flexibility, without annual commitment, for customers that need to make regular changes to their Microsoft 365 licences and seat count. However, these monthly subscriptions are still subject to the new 20% price increase across all licences.

Yearly subscription –

If you commit to your Microsoft licences for a 12-month period, there are two ways you can be billed for this, monthly or annually (upfront).  With a yearly subscription, your pricing will be set for the full term – enabling you to benefit from the additional cost savings of any price increases due in that time. This subscription will allow you to increase but not decrease the seat count.

36-month subscription –

A 36-month pricing option is now also available on some products, which will freeze your licence cost for the full 36 months. Again, you will have the option to be billed monthly or annually (upfront). Like with the 12-month commitment, this subscription will allow you to increase but not decrease the seat count.

Please note: Any new commercial seat-based subscription orders in CSP new commerce will allow seven calendar days for cancellations and seat reductions instead of the previous 72-hour window.

The next steps

This is a great opportunity for your business to audit its existing Microsoft 365 usage. If you’re not sure what the best option is for your organisation, we’re more than happy to help you work out the best way that you can avoid these price increases and make the most out of Microsoft’s new NCE structure.

For further information, contact your account manager or our Microsoft licensing consultancy team by emailing sales@virtualdcs.co.uk or calling +44 (0)3453 888 327.