Microsoft's volume licenses for online services on the brink of extinction

As part of an ongoing effort to simplify licensing structures and communicate prices more clearly, Microsoft is eliminating volume licenses for customers with Enterprise Agreements (EA) and Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MSPA) as of November. While customers previously fell into price levels A to D depending on the number of licenses and could receive a discount of 6 to 12 percent, from 1 November all customers will fall into price level A, which corresponds to the list price per license on the Microsoft website. Existing contracts are not directly affected; the de facto price increase will affect the purchase of new services and the renewal of agreements.

The price increase affects Microsoft's online services, including Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows 365 and all security, identity management and compliance products. Those who operate the relevant services themselves will not be affected by this change. However, Microsoft has been trying to push its customers towards its own cloud services, which are at the very least controversial in terms of data protection law, for years. Also exempt from the elimination of volume licenses are the US government and worldwide education price lists.

Microsoft partners who have to explain the change to their customers are referred by the US company to a sober announcement in which the company cites transparency and the standardization of its sales channels as flimsy reasons. A little more information can be found in a statement on Microsoft's Learn page. There, the company states that the simplified pricing structure will allow partners to focus more on the business needs of their customers.

(pst)