Last week Microsoft announced product, programme and pricing changes that will come into effect on 1st October 2018, please see below for a summary of the updates, a recording of our webinar, the accompanying slides, and the actions we recommend.

Programme:

How will this affect Microsoft software programmes? 

• Microsoft will be moving to a single starting price (known as their 'Web Direct' price - as the name suggests this is a published list price), this will remove pricing inconsistencies across the programmes and allow customers to pick a procurement route based on requirements, rather than pricing. Programmatic discounts (where applicable) will be applied to this starting price.
• The Level C discount band, in the Open family (MOLP, OVP and OVS) is being retired and the discount applied to Level A Enterprise Agreements (ENEAS), MPSA and Select Plus is also being removed. Customers with 'Level B' agreements and upwards will not be impacted.
• Government pricing will be aligned to the lowest available commercial price.
• Direct billing Enterprise Agreements are issued with a Customer Price Sheet (CPS). From October the CPS document will include details of how the pricing has been calculated, showing all programmatic discounts earned.

Product:

The 2019 versions of Microsoft products are soon to be launched, and with that will come some price changes and naming alterations to Windows 10.

• 'Windows 10 E3 Per Device" will revert to 'Windows 10 Enterprise" this won't affect the features, only the product name. The pricing of 'Per Device' will be updated to match 'Per User.'
• Windows 10 ES (which includes Defender Advanced Threat Protection) will only be available in a 'Per User' model, ES 'Per Device' is being discontinued.

Pricing:

How is the pricing of Microsoft products and programmes going to be affected?

• There will be a 10% uplift for all on-premise Office products and associated productivity servers and CAL suites. This will not affect any Online Services (Enterprise Mobility and Security and Office 365).
• Windows Server Standard prices will also increase by 10%.

What action should you and your organisation take?

Softcat hosted a webinar to run through these changes in more detail, answer questions and provide some suggestions to minimise the impact on you and your organisation, please watch the webinar below: 

Watch webinar recording

Get in touch

However, if you would like to talk this through with one of the Softcat Microsoft Licensing Team, please get in touch using the button below, or speak to your Softcat Account Manager.