It’s true, last August Microsoft announced that a Microsoft Office 365 price increase would happen in 2022. Microsoft are planning two key changes to their licensing. These changes will directly impact every Microsoft 365 customer globally (excluding consumer and education licenses).

There are measures your organisation can take however to get ahead of the Microsoft 365 subscription cost increases and limit the financial impact this will have.

Microsoft Office 365 Price Increases

On 1st March 2022, the following licenses will be subject to a 10-20% price increase:

• Microsoft365 Business Basic
• Microsoft365 Business Premium
• Office365 E1
• Office365 E5
• Microsoft 365 E3

This list is yet to be finalised, though this is what is currently listed by Microsoft. This currently does not apply to NFP licenses.

Any of the affected licences you have will increase by the same cost increase percentage from your March 2022 bill.

Licensing Model Change - Scaling Licenses

Currently, Microsoft allows the scaling up and down of licences at any time, without penalty. By October 2022, Microsoft are planning to change the scaling options so both licence types AND quantities are contracted for at least 12 months.

Any licences not contracted for 12 months will be subject to a 20% cost increase (this is in addition to aforementioned price increases). This increase will give you the capability to scale licence volumes up and down as you currently have the ability to do so.

This model change will apply to all licence types.

You can have a mixture of contracted licences which cannot be flexed down and flexible licences charged at the higher rate based on consumption. For example, 30x E3 contracted & 10x E3flexible.

You will be able to add contracted licences to other contracted licences. These will be co-termed to ensure all contracted licences renew on the same date.

If you do not contract any of your licences when these changes happen, you will automatically be kept on the flexible licence with the cost increasing accordingly.

To avoid incurring additional costs when flexible licences are not required, or to understand how your licenses will be affected, please let us know what licenses and quantity you have we will then provide you three clear pricing options:

• Price per licence per month to keep flexible
• Price per licence per month subject based on 12 month contract paid monthly
• Price per licence per month subject based on 12 month contract with the paid in advance

How to Get Ahead and Limit the Impact

There are two ways in which your organisation can limit the impact of these pricing increases.

Switch to a Cheaper Provider

As a tier 1 CSP, Infosec Cloud have access to the lowest Microsoft 365subscription prices in the UK.In short, this means that if you were to switch your Microsoft 365 billing to us, the financial impact of these changes on your organisation will be limited.

Switching provider can save you money at any point and is much easier than you think, following a simple three-step process:

• ‍Request a quote to see how much cheaper we can provide your same licenses
• Accept Infosec Cloud as a partner on your Microsoft 365 account
• Switch your licenses with zero downtime and zero hassle.

For more information on how easy it is to switch provider, please watch our short video.

Lock in with an Upfront Payment

If possible for your organisation, locking in for a 12 month contract before 1st March 2022 with an upfront payment will effectively defer the cost increase until your contract anniversary. Though, this is only being offered by a select few CSP’s, Infosec Cloud included.

If you would like a quote with the lowest possible commercials on your licenses, please get in touch.

Cost Savings through Microsoft 365 License Audit

Your organisation could already be overspending on advanced licenses that go beyond your requirements.

If you would like to check, you can arrange a free consultation with one of our licensing experts.

Our MicrosoftCertified Professionals will conduct an extensive utilisation review to identify any misconfigurations that may have occurred during the setup and build of your Microsoft 365 environment.

We will help identify those areas that are either threats, or can be enhanced, in a comprehensive report that will support the mitigation of any of the risks identified.