Category Archives: Uncategorized

Office 365 and Microsoft 365 nonprofit pricing changes

Microsoft announce that there will be per user per month price increases for the following nonprofit products from 1 September, 2022:

  • Office 365 E1 (up to $2.50 from $2)
  • Office 365 E3 (up to $5.75 from $4.50)
  • Office 365 E5 (up to $15.20 from $14)
  • Microsoft 365 E3 (up to $9 from $8)
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium (up to $5.50 from $5)

Find the Microsoft FAQ here: https://bit.ly/3NVg3MW.

Microsoft 365 Business offer for Google legacy G Suite customers

Customers with Google’s G Suite legacy free edition must move to a paid Google Workspace subscription from 1 May, 2022.

Alternatively, they can avail of a new Microsoft offer which allows them to purchase a 12-month Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium subscription with a 60% discount, simply by confirming their eligibility with a support agent at this site: https://bit.ly/3Dm73eM.

You can find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3DqnV3X

Power Platform Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (March 2022) Power Platform Licensing Guide, amended for the General Availability of the Pay-As-You-Go option for Power Apps.

You can find out more about this licensing option on our blog here: https://bit.ly/3Dme1R1, and download the updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3tni4rJ.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (March 2022) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, with just minor changes made: updates to some of the security roles, and language changes to match the Product Terms for Customer Insights and Marketing Attach products.

You can find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3C9IuRO.

General Availability of PAYG option for Power Apps

Microsoft announce the General Availability of the Pay-As-You-Go option for Power Apps. Historically, Power Apps has been licensed Per User (allows a user to access any number of apps) or Per App (allows a user to access a particular app), and both of these options are paid in advance. If PAYG is enabled for an environment, then app usage is charged on a consumption basis against an Azure Subscription, with a cost of $10 per app per user per month.

So, if one month 5 users use 2 apps each, then the organization is charged 5 x 2 x $10 = $100, but if the next month, only 1 user uses the 2 apps, then the charges are only 2 x $10 = $20.

There’s a good explanation of how this new licensing option works in the announcement article here: https://bit.ly/36TfWjK, and there’s an on-demand video that’s worth a watch here: https://bit.ly/3tLrRsX.

SQL Server 2012 End-of-Support options

SQL Server 2012 comes to the end of support on 12 July, 2022 when no more security patches will be issued. Customers might upgrade to a newer version of SQL Server at this time, or perhaps purchase Extended Security Updates, or move to Azure where security patches are free.

You can find a useful article comparing the options, including moving to AWS, here: https://bit.ly/3NsSkmJ.

Managing Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment

Customers buying direct from Microsoft via an EA or the Microsoft Customer Agreement can make a commitment to the amount of Azure services they intend to purchase over a given period – this is called a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC).

There are some new/updated resources for customers to help them manage MACC: the first (https://bit.ly/3Jje1DB) gives instructions on tracking MACC, and the second (https://bit.ly/3KRs8jH) is helpful in ascertaining whether purchasing certain Marketplace offers will contribute to this commitment.