Executive Summary
- Our Microsoft Newsflash series delivers a quick burst of news about Microsoft 365 and anything which might impact business users and, specifically, our customers.
- In this edition, we’ll be taking a look at whether the UK will see any price changes to Microsoft 365 this October (spoiler: it won’t) and share some updates about the retirement of CSP billing and the rollout of the New Commerce Experience.
Introduction
Welcome to an all-new series on the Get Support blog: Microsoft Newsflash.
In this regular update, we’ll compile all of those small – but no less important – bits of recent news about Microsoft 365 into a short, sharp shot of information. They might not be big enough headlines to justify their own articles, but we like to keep our customers informed of the latest news out of Redmond, whether big or small.
So, let’s take a look at what you need to know for October 2023.
Microsoft 365 pricing remains unchanged in the UK
In a previous article here on the Get Support blog, we highlighted Microsoft’s January 2023 announcement that it would begin to assess the pricing of Microsoft 365 subscriptions semi-annually.
The goal of this change was to maintain consistent pricing that accurately reflects the exchange rate of the local currency to the US dollar (USD).
The big news for UK-based organisations this October? Don’t worry – it’s good news this time. The UK will not see any price adjustments this October, making the rise in April 2023 the only one for this calendar year (barring any surprises).
However, some territories will be subject to price increases in October 2023, specifically:
- Australia (AUD)
- New Zealand (NZD)
- Canada (CAD)
- Switzerland (CHF)
A fond farewell to CSP legacy billing
Another change to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem we’ve reported on the Get Support blog is the move to NCE, or the New Commerce Experience.
The rollout of NCE has been a slow one, beginning back in October 2021. But the change in Microsoft’s billing structure is picking up speed, marking the end of legacy billing systems in favour of the more streamlined NCE approach.
As Microsoft slowly retires the Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) platform across 2024, it’s finally moving the last few customer types across to NCE.
Starting in November 2023, Public Sector (including charities) customers will be able to switch to NCE billing manually. After January 2024, any new or renewing customers will automatically migrate to NCE billing. In the case of renewing customers, this change will happen on their existing renewal date.
When the renewal takes place, customers will be migrated to an annual term on NCE and retain the same billing plan and seat counts as they had with legacy billing. The prices for the subscriptions will also move to the latest Microsoft pricing.
We understand that some of these changes might seem complex, so if you need any clarity around exactly how they might impact your organisation, just ask your Get Support account manager, or give our team a call on 01865 594 000.
