| Microsoft have announced an update to their commercial pricing for the Microsoft 365 products, which you may know as Office 365, but are essentially the licenses that are required for using email and Office Apps from Microsoft. The changes are coming into effect on 1st March 2022. This is the first substantial change Microsoft will have made to their commercial pricing since Microsoft 365 was launched over 10 years ago. These changes will apply globally and will apply to every organisation, IT support and reseller company, plus anyone who buys direct to Microsoft. The two main changes that will affect us all are: – A 15% price increase for most licenses – A yearly commitment to all licenses What does this mean to my business? Whilst some of the detail, including confirmed UK prices, have yet to be announced, the structure of the new pricing policy is that the default commitment will become a yearly term. This means that all licenses will need to be purchased and paid for at the start of the term, they will last a year and there will be no reimbursement if numbers are changed during the year. If customers do really need to stick to a monthly plan, Microsoft will be applying an extra 20% surcharge to these subscriptions. What happens next? As Microsoft continue to release further information, we will communicate the details that affect you. Confirmation of the prices increases are expected soon. We will follow up on this news with your organisation’s renewal date, number of licenses and the new annual commitment cost. Do I need to do anything to make these changes happen? No. Everyone is tied to the new agreement, so we will take it by default that you are willing to proceed with the forced changes. So, in January 2022, we will put in the changes behind the scenes to move across to the new agreement, raise a new invoice based on your current usage and share it with you in advance. Once confirmed, we can move over to the new agreement with no interruption to services. Please see below why we still feel that the Microsoft 365 offering is more cost effective and richer in features than any alternative solution. What if I have concerns? Of course, we understand that this could a big change for some however it reflects the general move by big Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. We are very happy to discuss this with you and help support you through this change. If you have any questions, or require any further information about Microsoft’s planned price changes, please don’t hesitate to contact us on support@brashsolutions.co.uk or 01442 877 555 or you can book an online call with us using https://brashsolutions.co.uk/contact-matt Microsoft 365 value High availability, nearly always available, no reliance on a server in the office Huge amount of included features, 50GB mailbox, 1TB OneDrive storage, Microsoft Teams and so many more Ability to use and license Microsoft Apps like Outlook, Word, Excel etc Cheaper than the alternative Google offering products Enterprise level auditing and security Updates, new features and improvements constantly being released at no cost During the 10 years since its launch, Office 365 has continuously evolved to stay ahead of the increasingly complex world of security and compliance, introducing AI and automation to drive productivity and teamwork and with the addition of Teams, it has further positioned Microsoft 365 as the workplace tool for communication and collaboration with more than 250 million users worldwide. That evolution is set to continue at a similar pace with Microsoft continuing to announce product innovations that will benefit business productivity and collaboration amongst many other exciting things to come! |
