August 23, 2023
These are the next steps in Microsoft’s legacy CSP commerce phase-out
As we’ve announced last year, Microsoft is bidding farewell to the CSP legacy platform and moving on to a New Commerce Experience.
A proactive approach with support from your account manager at Inova Solutions ensures smoother and simpler subscription management.
Take a look at the timeline:
- Starting November 2023, public sector (academic, government community cloud, not-for-profit/charity) offers will be available in new commerce for new and renewing subscriptions.
- From January 2024, Microsoft will begin automatic migration of all renewing commercial and public sector customers to the New Commerce Experience (NCE). The NCE licensing model is built on an annual or multi-year commitment, aligned with other Microsoft agreements (Enterprise Agreement, Open Value Agreement).
What’s changing, and what’s not?
- All legacy subscriptions that are transitioned to the new commerce platform will be adjusted to align with the current annual term, and the quantity of seats will remain consistent with the previous CSP arrangement.
- The migration, led by Microsoft, will occur on the date of subscription renewal, starting with subscriptions renewing in January 2024 and continuing throughout the entirety of the 2024 calendar year.
- For all new or renewed subscriptions, you will be invoiced for the entire/remaining subscription term.
- Once the migration is complete, you have a grace period of 168 hours to make changes to the subscription term or quantity, or if necessary, cancel the subscription.
- After this 168–hour period, you will no longer have the option to cancel, reduce, or modify the subscription term. Any changes made during these initial 168 hours will result in pro-rated charges based on the subscription usage.
What are your action steps?
- Update your accounting/finance department regarding the invoicing changes from a prepaid balance method and a monthly invoice to a subscription term method. A subscription term can be monthly, yearly, or triennial.
- The benefits of proactively migrating your subscriptions include the ability to synchronize subscription end dates with the invoicing date, leading to a streamlined subscription management process.
| Aspect |
Legacy License Based |
New Commerce Experience |
| Subscription term |
Single annual commitment term |
Flexible commitment terms: monthly, annual, triennial |
| Pricing |
Monthly subscription, up to 20% higher |
Competitive monthly subscription |
| Invoicing |
Prepaid, replenished based on consumption |
Invoiced for each subscription term |
| Subscription alignment |
Subscriptions start and end on various days |
Capability for subscription alignment with the same end/renewal date |
| Migration to NCE |
Customers can initiate migration from legacy offers immediately |
|
We are here to help!
We’re here to assist you through this transition. Have questions? Book a call with your dedicated account manager. Stay tuned for a smoother subscription journey ahead!
