Microsoft’s Office 365 suite has evolved into a powerhouse subscription, allowing many businesses to retire their servers and run entirely from this bundle of cloud-based products. The productivity suite was originally launched a decade ago and now has more than 300 million paid commercial seats and recently, Microsoft is announcing a price increase for many of the tiers of the service.
During the past decade, Microsoft has improved the suite by adding new tools and features like Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate, Planner, Vision, Yammer and more without directly increasing the price of the service. But that is about to change with the new pricing for the services listed below.
In addition to the New Commerce Experience, there will be a price increase of between 8.5% (Office 365 E5) & 25% (Office 365 E1) that will take effect from 1st March 2022 for the following licenses:
- Microsoft Business Basic
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Office 365 E1, E3 and E5
- Microsoft 365 E3
New Commerce Experience Term Options
- Monthly subscription
- With the NCE you will have the ability to purchase your Microsoft 365 licenses on a monthly basis without an annual commitment. Microsoft is now offering this to provide flexibility to customers that need to make monthly changes to their Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licenses plans and seat count. Price increases go into effect as of March 1, 2022, and Monthly subscriptions are immediately subject to any future price uplifts that Microsoft may enact.
- 12 month subscription
- Through the NCE, you’ll have the opportunity to commit to your licenses through a 12 month, pre-paid subscription. With the 12 month subscription, your pricing will be locked in for the entire term – allowing 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 during the term (any decreases can only be processed at your annual renewal).
- 36 month subscription
- Microsoft is introducing a Multi Year Pricing to the NCE, allowing you to secure a 3 year pricing for longer term licensing commitments. With this subscription tier you’ll be billed on a pre-paid basis. This subscription will allow you to increase but not decrease the seat count during the term.
New Commerce Experience Term Considerations
- No decrements and cancellations throughout the term
- Seats added Midterm co-terminate and prorate mid-month
- Some products may be only available for annual commits
- Notifications will be provided at 30 & 7 days before renewals to evaluate contract
- This applies to annual and 36-month prepaid commitments. Customers on the monthly license can adjust as needed (please note there is no proration for cancellations made in the middle of the month, the new count is in effect for the following month)
- Commitment timelines begin at the date of purchase on a per subscription basis