Microsoft 365 New Commerce Experience (NCE) FAQ

The announcement of the New Commerce Experience model within the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program actually dates back to November 2019. The goal is to offer customers more choice and flexibility in how and where they buy, while giving Microsoft partners more options to sell to a growing base of existing and new customers. Partners play a vital role in helping customers in their digital transformation, no matter where they are in their journey or how they decide to carry out transactions. After Microsoft Azure and the CSP Perpetual licenses were previously accommodated within this model, the other CSP subscriptions such as Office 365, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365 are now following. In practice, this means that the current (legacy) subscriptions will eventually be replaced by New Commerce Experience subscriptions.

The current (legacy) supscriptions are available until March 1st 2022 for new customers (or as new subscriptions for existing customers). After that date, only new NCE subscriptions can be purchased.

Current legacy subscriptions can be renewed for a year until July 1st 2022. Microsoft always considers 1 year for the duration of their subscriptions. After this year, and thus after the final renewal date, the subscriptions will end and the customer must already have an NCE subscription.

Unfortunately, this does not exist at the moment. For the time being, the customer or partner must choose the right NCE subscription and then cancel their current legacy subscription. We will of course communicate if such a migration plan or tool becomes available.

The end date of, for example, a 12-month subscription is in that case indeed the same for all seats. If your customer starts his subscription on March 15, 2022 with 10 seats and he adds 2 more in June, these 2 new seats will also run until March 15, 2023. These 2 seats can also be purchased at the same price as the initial 10 seats due to the corresponding price protection within this 12-month subscription.

No, except for the first 72 hours, it is only possible to do a partial or complete upgrade to a “higher” plan during your subscription. Downgrading is only possible at the date of renewal, after the duration of the subscription. Don’t forget to turn of Auto-Renewal in that case.

If you are talking about 12- or 36-month subscriptions, no. Cancelling is only possible during the first 72 hours, after which the billing continues until the end of the term. With these longer terms, Microsoft is focusing on commitment, which should ensure that customers are less likely to choose other partners through, for example, better prices. The subscription can only be transferred to another organization at the end of the term.

Basically not. For the time being, Microsoft indicates that they must assess it on a case-by-case basis by the so-called Billing team. So no guarantees in advance. If there are more developments in this, we will of course let you know.

Right now, the NCE model has only been announced for commercial subscriptions. The expectations is that other sectors will follow soon.

This is the first substantive pricing update since Office 365 was released in June 2011, excluding FX adjustments. This change builds on the product innovation they have delivered over the past decade to meet the evolving needs of customers. Since the initial release, they have added 25 new apps (including Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard) and more than 1,400 features.

Yes, the prices affect both the yearly and monthly billing options.

Existing customers won’t be affected until their next renewal or after June 30th 2022.

The number one priority is to continue to add value to Microsoft 365 to meet evolving customer needs. This is the first substantial list price update since Office 365 was released in June 2011, and reflects the significant value they have added to the product over that time. They regularly evaluate the prices of the offerings based on the value they deliver to customers.

Yes, following functionalities will be added to some subscriptions in the coming period:

• Audio Conferencing. Right now, this feature is only included in Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5. But as of March 2022 it will be added to:
  • MKB: Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Microsoft 365 Business Premium
  • Enterprise: Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3 and Office 365 E1
  • Firstline: Microsoft 365 F3, Microsoft 365 F1 and Office 365 F3

This allows customers to dial into Teams meetings from +70 countries on virtually any device. Until then, organizations can use the €0,00 promo that can currently be purchased via CSP. For more information about this solution, click here >>

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P1, now available via CSP as a separate subscription for a suggested retail price of €2,50, will also be added to Microsoft 365 E3 and A3. For more information, click here>>

• Microsoft Defender for Business, will be released as a separate subscription (expected to also have a suggested retail price of €2,50) and will be added to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. For more information, click here >>