If you haven’t heard, Microsoft’s increasing its subscription prices for Microsoft 365 in March.
It’s the first significant price rise for a decade. And Niagara small businesses can expect to pay around 20 to 40 percent more.
It’s not just a price increase. Microsoft’s also changing the way it sells 365. It’s complicated and there’s bound to be some short-term pain as we all get used to it.
Here are the basic details. You should talk to your IT support partner over the next few weeks to see exactly how it’s going to affect your business.
Until March, you’ll have a choice of sticking with the rolling month-by-month contract and swallowing the price increase, or you can commit to a 12-month agreement.
The significant benefit of an agreement is that it’ll lock your current pricing for a year. But there’s a downside – you’ll lose flexibility.
You can increase the number of licenses you use during your contract, but you can’t decrease them.
In real terms, that means if you take on more staff, it won’t be a problem to give them access to the essential business tools they need.
But if your headcount goes down for any reason, you’ll have to pay for the 365 licenses you no longer need. You also won’t be able to move your Microsoft licensing to another IT support company during that contract.
You can add or remove licenses as needed, but the price will be higher overall. The other option, then, is to have a monthly rolling contract. For some businesses, that flexibility will be worth paying extra for and better value long-term.
Before deciding, it’s worth thinking through your plans for the next 15 months.
If you want to talk through which option will be best for you, give us a call at 289-479-5606.
Published with permission from Your Tech Updates