Third party maintainers – marriage material?
06/09/2022Ultima Partner Pulse – August
06/09/2022On the 19th August 2021, Microsoft announced an update to their commercial pricing for Microsoft 365. This change will go into effect on 1st March 2022. Increases will include:
Enterprise
• Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36)
• Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)
• Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
• Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
SMB
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
All pricing is per user per month. These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. There are no changes to pricing for education and consumer products at this time.
This price update builds on the product innovation Microsoft has delivered over the past ten years to meet the changing needs of customers. Since initial release, 25 new apps and more than 1,400 features have been added. This includes the introduction of Microsoft Teams as the only solution with meetings, chats, calls, collaboration, and the ability to automate business processes. Microsoft have added capabilities like data loss prevention (DLP) for documents and emails, Office messaging encryption, and attack surface reduction capabilities. And new artificial intelligence (AI)-supported capabilities that help automate tasks, find the information we need, and help us communicate in ways that are more accessible for everyone have been included.
The announcement by Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, explains some of the innovation Microsoft have delivered over the past decade in three key areas: communications and collaboration, security and compliance, and AI and automation.
Next steps:
If you’re an existing CSP customer, Microsoft have now limited your flexibility on monthly billed licenses and therefore by March 2022, you’ll be paying up to 20% more on top of your current tenancy.
To help, Ultima are offering you a free licensing consultancy call with our inhouse Software Team who will review your estate and will help you to reduce your costs ahead of the price increases. To get started, all you need to do is click here to get in touch and the team will reach out with next steps.
Extending audio conferencing capabilities
At the same time Microsoft also announced that they will add unlimited dial-in capabilities for Microsoft Teams meetings across enterprise, business, frontline, and government suites over the next few months. Even as cloud connectivity increases, people join Teams meetings while they are on the go or struggling with a bad internet connection. Currently included with Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5, dial-in has become an important part of the complete Teams experience. Available with subscription in over 70 countries and with interactive support in 44 languages and dialects, unlimited dial-in provides peace of mind that users will be able to join their Microsoft Teams meeting from virtually any device regardless of location. across paid enterprise, business, frontline, and government suites, enabling users to dial-in and join a Teams meeting from virtually any device. The change will impact:
• Enterprise – Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E1
• Frontline – Microsoft 365 F3, Microsoft 365 F1, Office 365 F3
• SMB – Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Currently included with Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5, dial-in has become an important part of the complete Teams experience. This change will be effective in March 2022.
Changes to Intune and EMS E3 /E5
The price increase announced on the 19th August 2021 is in addition to the price increase Microsoft announced in February relating to Intune and EMS E3 & E5 which came into effect this month, August 2021.
The increases to Intune and EMS were based on Microsoft delivering significant investments in Microsoft Endpoint Manger and Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) over the past 18 months. The increases included: EMS E3 increase of circa 21%, EMS E5 of circa 11% and Intune standalone increase of circa 33%.
10% increase for the next version of Office
Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), the next perpetual release of Office, will be made available within the next few months. As with previous releases, Office LTSC will still be a device-based “perpetual” license but will come with an increased price: Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, and the individual apps will increase by up to 10% at the time of general availability.
See the original post here.
Windows Server 2022
With the release of Window Server 2022 Microsoft looks to increase the price by 10% across server, client access licenses and external connector licenses. Windows Server 2022 licenses will be available to purchase from 1st September. Purchasing in August with SA (or subscription licence) will entitle you to the 2022 release without incurring the increase.
Please contact your Ultima Microsoft Software Licensing Team for further information.
Ultima’s Microsoft Partnership
At Ultima, we live and breathe Microsoft. We’ve been a Microsoft Gold partner for over 25 years and accumulated 13 Microsoft Gold Partner Competencies. These span App Dev, Cloud Platform, Data Management Business Apps, Mobility and Productivity. We are also 1 of only 4 Fast Track Ready LSPs for Modern Workplace which allows us to seamlessly migrate customers from legacy software over to Office 365.