What is NCE?

Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE) is part of a transformational journey that’s changing the way we transact with Microsoft. This multi-phase program is aimed at helping businesses accelerate growth, simplify licensing and automate how you sell Microsoft services.

Phased Approach

Microsoft has taken a multi-stage approach to rolling out the New Commerce Experience, initially launching NCE for Microsoft Azure in 2019. NCE goes live for Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform in March 2022.

Contracted Annual Subscriptions

With NCE, Microsoft is pivoting to annual (or committed) subscriptions by default. Excluding some mandatory Microsoft price increases, annual committed subscriptions may be sold at the same rate we sold them under the legacy CSP program.

Non-Contracted Monthly Subscriptions

Optional monthly (non-committed) subscriptions will now be available at a 28% premium over the annual subscription price, but offer flexibility to scale up/down and cancel.     

Partnering with RapidScale

Today there are 4,000 Microsoft partners in the US. Of those partners, over 90% also transact on a monthly basis. RapidScale is part of an elite group that today is NCE-ready. We’ve been transacting on an annual (committed) basis for years. We’re ready and available to talk to partners today about NCE.

We recognize that NCE is complex, with a lot of options to weigh. Our cloud solutions consultants are here to help you make informed decisions for you, your business, and your customers’ businesses.

How We’re NCE-Ready:

  • Developed into Microsoft’s APIs to automate price books against NCE 
  • Developed automation capabilities for migration/orchestration 
  • Customer portal for self-service, billing, support, KPIs and more

Navigating the Microsoft NCE Landscape with RapidScale

Frequently Asked

Questions

What is New Commerce Experience or NCE?

You currently purchase licensing for cloud-based products from RapidScale via a Microsoft program called “Cloud Solution Provider” (CSP).  In March 2022, Microsoft will be changing its cloud-based product licensing to a new program called “New Commerce Experience” (NCE).  This is part of a journey that Microsoft embarked on in 2019 with Azure, and effective March 2022 it will also include Microsoft 365, Office 365, Dynamics 365, and other Microsoft products. 

How is NCE different from what I have today?

The table below outlines the differences between the current CSP program and the new NCE program.

Program 

License Type 

Microsoft Commitment 

Price 

True Up 

True Down 

Upgrade 

Downgrade 

CSP (Today) 

N/A 

Monthly 

Base 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

NCE 

Annual 

Annual 

Same as Base 

Yes 

No 

Yes 

No 

NCE 

Monthly 

Monthly 

Base + 28% 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

When does NCE go live?

NCE officially goes live on March 10th, 2022. RapidScale will be converting customers to NCE prior to that date to ensure there is no interruption in Microsoft product availability, and to take advantage of the Price Protection features in NCE.  

Can a customer have both Annual and Monthly subscriptions on the same tenant?

Yes, a customer can have both monthly and annual purchasing options for the same subscription.

Is there a premium for monthly commitments?

Yes. Microsoft will be assessing an approximate premium of 28% on monthly licensing with NCE.

What are the mandatory price increases Microsoft is introducing?

Microsoft is increasing pricing on six SKUs effective March 1, 2021.  These price increases include Business Basic, Business Premium, Office 365 E1, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Microsoft 365 E3.

What is RapidScale doing to prepare for NCE?

There are over 4,000 US-based CSP partners and over 12,000 globally. NCE requires that these partners leverage Microsoft’s rich APIs to securely transact licensing, orchestrate licensing assignment and activation, upgrade licensing, and enable reporting and billing features. RapidScale is among a group of elite managed service providers who today are NCE-ready and able to transact using NCE’s automation capabilities.

What benefits do I get with NCE as a customer?

The primary benefit that you will realize with NCE is price protection. The NCE annual SKUs provide 12 months of price protection at your current subscription price. Microsoft is also expected to release 36-month NCE subscriptions shortly that will provide additional price protection.

Microsoft will also be including additional features with NCE subscriptions on an ongoing basis, such as including Audio Conferencing with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 mailboxes. This gives you the ability to schedule Microsoft Teams meetings with a phone number for dial-in users. Other features are expected to be forthcoming as well.

Will customers be forced to move to New Commerce Experience?

Microsoft is mandating that new customers use New Commerce Experience subscriptions starting March 10, 2022. Existing customers will have until June 30, 2022 to renew subscriptions via NCE and realize price protection.  

Can monthly term subscriptions be changed to annual term?

Yes. A customer’s subscription can be changed from a monthly term to an annual term within New Commerce Experience.

Can I upgrade subscriptions under NCE?

Yes. Customers can upgrade subscriptions to more expensive licenses at any time. These can be a full upgrade (all of your users) or select users (partial upgrade).   

Are any of my RapidScale-provided services changing under NCE?

No. You will still receive the same RapidResponse Support and managed services for all your Microsoft subscriptions. Nothing is changing with the RapidScale support and service levels. NCE is simply a license subscription change. We will continue to provide email backup, user adoption training via Nulia, email migration, and other services.  Service Level Agreements will not be changed at all as a part of NCE.

Microsoft 365 with RapidScale

On top of the already powerful value Microsoft provides, RapidScale’s Microsoft 365 solution includes immense value beyond the license, from support to user enablement to management and more.

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Microsoft 365

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Nulia Works

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Customer Portal

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RapidResponse Support

Insights

Microsoft NCE Partner Brief

Gone are the simple days of pay-as-you-go license tiers with Microsoft’s introduction of annual and multi-year commitment pricing for the world’s leading cloud productivity suite. Learn how to navigate the new Microsoft NCE landscape with RapidScale.

[BLOG] Microsoft NCE Explained and What It Means for You

Are you ready for some of the changes coming from Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience (NCE)? Find out more about NCE and how you can be NCE-ready with RapidScale.

Let’s get moving.

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