Microsoft New Commerce Experience: A Customer Guide

WHAT MICROSOFT’S NEW COMMERCE EXPERIENCE MEANS FOR YOU

Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program continues to evolve as it adapts to support the constantly shifting needs of today’s businesses. As part of its investment in the CSP program, Microsoft has reduced licensing complexity and costs, as well as provided flexibility to support a range of client purchasing scenarios. To achieve this, Microsoft launched the New Commerce Experience (NCE) for Microsoft Azure in 2019 – and in October of 2021 expanded NCE to include Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform.

The latest announcement sees a change in ‘seat-based offers’ such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365. This change will see a new enforcement of a 72-hour cancellation window and changes to the flexibility model with the introduction of new monthly term offers that are subject to a 20% increase in price.

WHAT NEW FEATURES WILL THE NEW COMMERCE EXPERIENCE PROVIDE?

Multi- Geo – Available in 2022

Multi-Geo allows organisations to provision and store data at rest in the various geo- locations that they have chosen to meet data residency requirements. This is currently only available for customers who consume online services via Enterprise Agreements (EA) or Enterprise Subscription Agreements (ESA).

As a part of the New Commerce Experience (NCE), Multi-Geo will be available for customers consuming online services on CSP in 2022. This will give smaller organisations who do not meet the criteria for EA/ESA the ability to secure Multi-Geo pricing.

Home Use Program (HUP) – Available in early 2022

The HUP will allow employees of organisations who consume online services via CSP to take advantage of purchasing a Microsoft 365 subscription with a 30% discount.

Hybrid Use Benefits (HUB) – Available in 2022

HUB will allow organisations to further capitalise on their Microsoft investments made via the CSP program.

As your Microsoft experts, the CAE team is here to help you navigate the latest changes and updates to the CSP program so that you can take advantage of all available features, benefits, and opportunities

ROADMAP OF CHANGES

• 10th January 2022 – NCE is generally available
• January to March 2022 – 5% discount on standard pricing available for early annual commitment onto NCE
• 10th March 2022 – All new subscriptions must be created in NCE
• 1st July 2022- Legacy CSP subscriptions can only be renewed into NCE

KEY CHANGES

For further information on these changes, please refer to our FAQ document. For specific questions relating to your account, or to discuss how you can mix/match flex and fixed term pricing models to meet your business needs, please get in contact with your sales representative.