Understanding your current licensing position is more critical than ever, with Microsoft recently announcing price increases that will affect businesses next year.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we can give you the clarity you need to make the most of your licensing. Our licensing reviews help 90% of businesses save money on the monthly licensing bill.

Corporate VP Jared Spataro explained that these price increases are due to Microsoft’s innovation into their product suites over the past decade. During this time, they’ve launched the famous Office 365, over 1,400 features, and 24 new apps. Including; Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard.

Microsoft Innovations

According to Jared, the innovations have enabled businesses to thrive in three key areas:

1. Communication and collaboration

With more than 250 million monthly active users, Microsoft Teams has been a communication lifeline for businesses this past year. As many companies were forced into remote working, Office apps like Teams and OneDrive allowed businesses to stay in touch. Microsoft released over 300 new features during the pandemic, including background effects, live reactions, breakout rooms, and live captions with speaker attribution.

They’ve continued to innovate other apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to enable real-time collaborations and @mentions and assign tasks, modern comments, and auto-save.

2. Security and compliance

With the increasing risk of cyber threats, protecting your data is more critical than ever. Since Microsoft 365 was launched, several new security features like data loss prevention for email and documents, sensitivity labels, and message encryption have helped keep critical data secure. There is also Content Search, eDiscovery, and core Litigation Hold to assist businesses with data compliance.

3. AI and automation

Ai is increasingly becoming integrated with day-to-day apps and software. Microsoft themselves have implemented AI in Excel, Outlook, Power BI and more.

Unlimited audio conferencing

To justify the Microsoft Price increase, they offer unlimited dial-in capabilities for Microsoft Teams across the enterprise, business, and frontline suites. Dial-in has quickly become an essential part of the Teams experience. Unlimited dial-in will allow users peace of mind, as they can join team meetings from virtually any device, regardless of location.

When will we see the change?

The increase will apply globally, with adjustments made for specific regions.

However, only US pricing is available at the moment so we’ve included our estimations for the price increase.

 Business Plans

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22) from £15.08 to £16.58

Enterprise Plans

• Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
• Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23) from £17.58 to £20.20
• Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36) from £28.13 to £32.13
• Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38) from £30.77 to £33.77

The pricing above shows the cost per user per month, and the increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for specific regions. These changes will go into effect on March 1st 2022.

While these price changes are unavoidable, you can still work with a partner who provides quality at an affordable price.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we can give you the clarity you need to make the most of your licencing. Our licencing reviews help 90% of businesses save money on the monthly licencing bill. Dropping unused licences can save your business money and maintain compliance.

Make the right choice for your business

Choose the right Cloud Solutions partner for you business budget. Partnering with us guarantees value and 24/7 support. Learn how we can help you find the perfect Microsoft License for your business.