Microsoft recently announced new commercial pricing for Microsoft 365 (Office 365).
This is the first time in over a decade that they have announced substantive pricing. A lot has changed since they first launched Office 365. Whilst no-one likes price increases, we believe this one may be justified 🙂
Here’s what Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365 has to say,
“Four years ago, we introduced Microsoft 365 to bring together the best of Office, Windows, and Enterprise Mobility and Security (EMS). That same year we added Microsoft Teams as the only integrated solution where you can meet, chat, call, collaborate, and automate business processes—right in the flow of work.
In fact, since introducing Microsoft 365 we have added 24 apps to the suites—Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard – and have released over 1,400 new features and capabilities in three key areas.”
Communication & Collaboration in the Modern Workplace
The world has changed dramatically in the last decade, especially in terms of how we communicate and collaborate. Microsoft 365 is still leading the way in the Modern Workplace and in Digital Transformation.
10 years ago who’d have thought so many of us would be working remotely, productively and collaboratively, holding business meetings at kitchen tables, on sofas and bedrooms? We’ve managed pretty much ‘business as usual’ in the midst of a pandemic, largely thanks to Microsoft Teams. The real-time collaboration now possible in apps such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint means remote working will remain our ‘new normal’. And it’s all rather more secure than is possible with many competing products!
Security & Compliance
The cybersecurity landscape is growing increasingly complex, so how we meet security and compliance requirements must keep pace. Microsoft is right on it with new attack surface reduction capabilities to defend against ransomware and other threats. Regulatory Compliance is much easier to achieve with Content Search, eDiscovery and core Litigation Hold. Managing devices used by remote workers, using built-in mobile device management and Microsoft Endpoint Manager, helps admins support remote and hybrid workforces.
AI and automation
And now Artificial Intelligence innovations are appearing in productivity and collaboration applications. Email clutter removal, automated generation of charts & maps, captions and transcripts and real-time translation are features we can’t live without. Now everyone can be better writers, designers and presenters and achieve more.
Microsoft is even adding unlimited dial-in capabilities to Teams across enterprise, business, frontline and government suites over the next few months. This enables users to join meetings from virtually any device in any location, while on the move, even with a poor internet connection.
New pricing – What do we know so far?
The new pricing will come into effect on 1st March 2022, along with a new Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA). The new MCA will apply only to new customer sign-ups initially. Existing customers will be required to sign up to the new MCA soon after, with the aim of getting all existing customers transitioned before October 2022.
Example price changes for annual commitments will be as follows:-
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6 per user)
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
- Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
- Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
- Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)
- Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36).
Microsoft has not yet announced price changes for any of the other products. We can’t say for sure if they will be affected too. The very popular Microsoft 356 Business Standard & Exchange Online Plan 1 are not mentioned. We’ll be keeping a close watch.
The price changes applying to monthly commitments are yet to be announced. Multi-year commitments will also be available (with discounted pricing), but we don’t yet have any further info.
At the time of writing, we understand Microsoft will announce price protection incentives to assist during the transition period, but again we are waiting on further announcements.
And what else do our highly valued customers need to know?
We’ll contact all our existing customers directly once we have the full picture. Then we’ll confirm what the new pricing will be in GBP and offer guidance on which of the new commitment options will best suit their needs.
Microsoft says there will be no increases to education and consumer products. They are standing by their commitment to continuing innovation to help customers succeed and thrive.
So with all that in mind we’ll continue to recommend Microsoft 365 as the best product suite for your business.
If you have any urgent questions or concerns about how the price changes will affect your business, please do give us a call on 01535 358161.
If you want to read more about how hybrid working using the power of Microsoft 365 will change your business for the better, read this
Want to get your business set up to benefit from working in Microsoft 365 smoothly and quickly, check out our Migration Services
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