Microsoft - New Commerce Experience - Q&A

Logicom Cloud Marketplace Announcements Microsoft - New Commerce Experience - Q&A
  1. Inside a New Commerce Experience Seats subscription, within e.g. a 12-month contract, more users can be added. What happens to those users – do they have commitment until the end of that original 12-month contract? Or does the 12-month commitment reset?

All additions to the same Subscription co-terminate to the initial subscription end-date.

  1. I understand that a product can be upgraded during the 12-month contract. What happens to the contract? Does it continue or does it reset? What happens if only, for example, half the users will upgrade?

An upgrade can either be Full or Partial. 

->Full: In-place upgrade and all seats are upgraded. Subscription ID remains the same and all the new licenses are assigned automatically. Initial subscription end-date is retained. 

->Partial: Some of the seats are upgraded. The Subscription ID of the original Subscription remains the same. A new Subscription is created for the upgraded users which has an end-date that the same as the original Subscription. Licenses must be manually assigned to the users.

 

  1. Can, for example, 100x users Business Basic be converted to something else with bigger value but fewer users, like 90x users Business Premium?

An upgrade can be Full or Partial. You cannot have a Full upgrade will fewer users. For an eligible Partial upgrade, you can choose how many users will be upgraded to the new Subscription. The rest will remain to the original subscription.

 

  1. For example, a new M365 Business Standard subscription started on 13th December 2021. When will the reseller need to convert to NCE? 1st July 2022? Or 13th December 2022?

In old commerce the subscription term is not enforced. Assuming that the Reseller will keep the subscription for 1-year then at anniversary date (13th December 2022) they will need to renew to NCE since all renewals after 1st July must be in NCE. 

Please note that incentives eligibility in old commerce ends in 30th September 2022. Staying on a non-NCE subscription beyond that date will result in no incentives being collected via Microsoft for that subscription. Depending on the billing option the partner might want to switch well before the subscription anniversary date.

Keeping the same example: In May or October 2022 the customer wants to increase or reduce the users in that subscription (non-NCE subscription). Can they do it

Yes, the reseller can remove or add licenses at the same price, until the Subscription end date within the Old commerce experience framework regardless of NCE changes.

  1. What is the key difference between old Azure traditional experience and new Azure Plan? Is it only the visibility of cost management in Azure portal or anything above that?

The new commerce experience in CSP for Azure delivers on a set of requests from partners to Streamline and consolidate the way customers buy and consume Azure services. Also after Feb. 1 2022, no incentives or discount will be offered in the legacy Azure. You need to therefore transfer all legacy Azure to the new Azure Plan offer.

  1. How about the Old Legacy Platform reservations? Do they still have the Discount which is still valid for 2 more years? or is it possible the RIs can migrate to NCE?

Existing Reserved Instances (if any) will not be impacted and will continue to apply in the respective workloads under the Azure plan.

 

  1. What are the billing changes during the transition for existing customers who are on the old Commerce platform?

The legacy seat-based offers will remain active. Starting Oct.1 2022 no incentives will be available, however.

 

  1. What about Azure Reservations. Do they also get migrated? and if not, would the partner be incentivized on the remaining term considering it is to go beyond Feb 1st?

Existing Reserved Instances (if any) will not be impacted and will continue to apply in the respective workloads under the Azure plan.

 

  1. Can multiple terms be mixed into a single subscription? I.e. 80 Licenses with 3-Years commit whereas the remaining 20 licenses are on Monthly ?

Yes

 

  1. What about Co-Termination of additional subscriptions within the year?

Each subscription has its own term. after the first 72 hours, no cancellation is allowed

 

  1. What is the difference between the Enterprise Agreement and the 36 months subscription?

Microsoft's Enterprise Agreements is a totally different model addressing the needs of large organizations. Microsoft CSP model is a totally different, partner-driven model

 

  1. What are the CSP discount levels of monthly, 1-year and 3-year subscription's over the list prices?

NCE offers and their partner pricing will become available to the marketplace by mid-January. In the meantime, for any additional info on the pricing please contact our local sales teams.

  1. Considering the scenario where a customer signs up for 3-years with Monthly billing but they go out of business after 1-year, what options do Partners have?

Cancellation is possible only during the first 72 hours after the commencement of the term. A Reseller may cancel a Subscription within the first 72 hours and in that case, Reseller shall receive a prorated refund of the initial subscription payment of the term only within the first 72 hours after the order is placed or renewed (proration calculated daily). After the first 72 hours of the term, a Subscription cannot be cancelled and payment for the remainder of the term must be made and Reseller shall not receive a prorated refund if a Subscription was billed up front for the entire term. For the avoidance of doubt, 72 hours refers to calendar days.

 

  1. Can customer change partner?

Yes, but only during the first 72 hours. No changes are allowed after the first 72 hours

 

  1. Let's say the subscription was created with 3-years; after 72 hours, we can add new licenses in the same subscription (i.e., 80 initial +10 extra.) can those 10 be removed afterwards or we can only increase and not decrease?

Adding seats and upgrading is allowed even after the first 72 hours. The changes/new seats will go by the terms of the subscription => no changes will be allowed during the term of the subscription

 

  1. ​The current process of Upgrading a license is to add new subscription license and cancel the old licensing. Considering how cancellation wouldn't be allowed port 72 hours window, what is the change in process now?

Upgrading NCE seat-based offers is a new feature that will be available in our marketplace as soon as NCE based-offers will become available.

 

  1. The Maximum seat limit of 300 for Business plans are per tenant?

Yes, irrespective of the partner.

  1. Will the 5% promo discount will apply on Annual Commitment under monthly payment as well?

Yes

  1. Any information about updated rebate structure on Azure?

Check your partner Center announcements for the Modern Commerce Incentives. Otherwise contact our local sales team to provide you with all the available information.

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  1. What happens to a customer M365 subscription renewal who was on traditional subscriptions if the renewal is in Mar 2022?

Should renew in NCE model and you can benefit from the promo pricing. Also depending on the offer it may be affected by the price changes announced by MS.

 

  1. I need to ask about the ability for customers to see the expiry date for their subscriptions in O365 under new model NCE?

They will be able to see this from Logicom Cloud Marketplace

  1. The "promotion" is paid from Microsoft or Logicom?

Promo pricing will be included in the Logicom Cloud Marketplace prices (both in partner pricing and end-customer pricing)