It was almost a year ago when I wrote the last post about Microsoft 365 price changes and here we are again.
This time Microsoft have announced that they are going to align Microsoft Cloud prices globally.
What services are affected?
The price rise in 2022 only affected 6 products in the 365 portfolio.
In their announcement this time, Microsoft refers to “Microsoft Cloud”, which includes:
- Azure
- Microsoft Security
- Microsoft 365
- Dynamics 365 and
- Industry solutions
Who is affected?
The 2022 price rise only affected Commercial customers of Microsoft products. This time the price alignment will affect all user segments including non-profits and education.
How much is the price change and when?
Microsoft are careful to refer to this as a “price alignment” rather than a price increase. Microsoft are aiming to “align” prices by adjusting for exchange rate fluctuations – so they are not increasing prices, just flexing as exchange rates change. In reality this translates to a 9% increase for customers in the UK. Other countries will experience different price changes – for example prices in the EU, Denmark and Norway will see an increase of 11% while in Sweden prices will increase 15%.
Microsoft will confirm the actual new prices at the beginning of March with the new prices taking effect from 1st April.
Are there likely to be further price changes?
Microsoft have signaled that from now on they will be reviewing prices bi-annually. However, dates subsequent to the 1st April data have not been released.
How can I mitigate the price changes?
You can avoid the increases for a year if you sign an annual agreement before 31st March 2023. For those customers already on an annual agreement, the price prevailing at the time the agreement ends will apply.
Microsoft have still to confirm whether annual contracts will be available for Education and non-profit customers.
We signed an annual NCE agreement last year, does the price change affect us?
The price change will apply once your current subscription term expires if that is after 1st April 2023.
We signed an agreement to lock in legacy prices for a year. What happens in this case?
Some customers signed an agreement last February and paid in advance to lock in prices for a year and these agreements will terminate at the end of February. If you have one of these agreements, you can migrate to a pay monthly / annual subscription at the end of the current term. Prices will be locked for a 12 month period.
We are on a monthly term, what can we do?
Customers on a monthly agreement pay 20% more than those on an annual agreement, which may suit organisations that have a flexible or changing workforce. However you can have a combination of annual and monthly subscription terms. To save costs put “core” staff on annual subscriptions with flexible workers on monthly terms.
For further information please call us on 01428 770 290 or email on info@paac-it.com
Here’s the link to Microsoft’s announcement.