Microsoft New Commerce Experience (NCE)

09 Feb 2022

The Microsoft New Commerce Experience simplifies and streamlines how you buy your Microsoft and a way for you to have more options to tailor to your business needs and goals. It also makes the buying of Microsoft more consistent across their product ecosystem.

Microsoft is expanding the new commerce cloud product portfolio, introducing seat-based or license-based offers such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Windows 365.

Customers can still procure via the existing ‘legacy’ route until NCE is mandated on 10th March 2022 (New subscriptions only)
Customers can renew via the existing 'legacy' route until 30th June 2022

The main features of Microsoft NCE are:

New subscription term options: Monthly, Annual (Paid Monthly or Upfront), 36-Month Subscriptions* (Paid Monthly, Annual, Upfront)
New monthly-term offers with a 20% price premium for customers who need term and seat-count flexibility
Consistent cancellation policies: Seat-based offer terms in new commerce (limited to the first 72 hours** of the term with prorated refund)
Easier Subscription Management: Option to blend short- and long-term offers for seasonal or business-volume fluctuations
Eased transition to New Commerce: Tooling that streamlines the transition of existing subscription in CSP legacy to NCE
Easier adoption of new products, including streamlined trial conversions and add-ons available separately

*36-Month Terms available for Dynamics 365 (January 2022) and select Microsoft 365 subscriptions (March 2022). 36-Month upfront term subscriptions will be available starting March 2022

**72 hours based on UTC and includes weekends and bank holidays

Commercial Terms and Billing

Subscription Management

During the months in which new commerce and the existing CSP experience will be available side by side, we, as your partner, will be moving existing subscriptions to the new commerce experience as well as placing new subscription orders on new commerce in preparation for the eventual decommissioning of the original CSP experience.

Also, new CSP offers and term options will be launched and available only on the new commerce experience—for example, Microsoft plans to add three-year terms and multigeo add-ons for Microsoft 365 during 2022. If customers wish to purchase those new offers, it makes sense to move your existing subscriptions for other products onto the new commerce platform to consolidate your monthly billing using the new commerce standard billing period of the sixth to the eighth of every calendar month.

Frequently Asked Questions:

I like having the flexibility to cancel or reduce seats whenever I want with the current CSP experience. Why is Microsoft taking away that flexibility for customers with annual term subscriptions in new commerce, and why am I being charged more for the new monthly term option?

The enforcement of a cancellation policy in new commerce is designed to bring CSP into alignment with other purchase motions in new commerce, as well as existing Microsoft licensing programs, such as the Enterprise Agreement, so that all customers have a consistent purchasing experience and are subject to the same terms and conditions for the cloud offerings that they buy, whether it’s self-serve, from a Microsoft seller, or from a partner like us. The cancellation enforcement in new commerce ensures that customers committing to the entire term will benefit from the more favourable pricing of long-term subscriptions. It’s similar to the way you pay more for a refundable airline ticket or for an online subscription to premium content in which you can cancel at any time instead of paying for a year up front (which costs less per month on an annualized basis). Also, the higher pricing for the monthly-term option is in line with standard practice in the Microsoft Web Direct program, with licensing programs of competitors, and in other subscription-based businesses and industries.

When will my subscription on the current platform be required to be moved to new commerce?

On March 10, 2022, Microsoft will remove our ability to order new subscriptions on the existing CSP platform, and the ability to renew existing subscriptions on the existing platform will be removed on July 1, 2022. You should discuss with us the transition of your subscriptions to the new commerce experience as soon as possible, and how this may change your existing agreement and prices.

I have a seasonal business in which I need more seats for Microsoft 365 during certain times of the year when I have a lot more employees on staff. I understand that I can’t reduce the number of seats on an annual term subscription during the middle of the term. Would it be possible for me to have some seats on a monthly term and others on an annual term for the same offer?

Yes, you could have both a monthly term and an annual term subscription for the same seat-based offer at the same time with the appropriate number of seats in each term to accommodate your permanent and seasonal employees.

We understand this may seem a little daunting but the Kuiper Team are here to walk you through your licensing every step of the way. Contact us on 0330 058 4684 or email contactus@kuipertech.co.uk.