New pricing for Office 365 and Microsoft 365 – Take action now!

Microsoft announced the first substantive pricing update of Office 365 & Microsoft 365 since the launch of Office 365 around 10 years ago. Read when, why & how to take action!

Microsoft has announced changes to the commercial pricing for Office 365 and Microsoft 365. With a price increase up to 25%, this is the first substantive pricing update since the launch of Office 365 around 10 years ago. Microsoft explains the updated pricing is reflecting the increased value within these Cloud suites.

This increased value encompasses the introduction of information protection and information governance capabilities, as well as the investments made in cloud datacenters across the 365 suites and the introduction of new applications. In fact, since introducing Microsoft 365, Microsoft added 24 apps* to the suites: Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, Power BI, Power Automate, Stream, Planner, Visio, OneDrive, Yammer, and Whiteboard and they have released over 1,400 new features and capabilities.

Microsoft also announced extending audio-conferencing capabilities and adding unlimited dial-in capabilities for Microsoft Teams meetings across the Enterprise, Business, Frontline, and Government suites. As cloud connectivity increases, people join Teams meetings while they are on the go and often struggle with bad internet connections. Microsoft sees dial-in as an important part of the complete Teams experience. Unlimited dial-in provides peace of mind that users will be able to join their Microsoft Teams meeting from virtually any device regardless of location.

When?

The pricing changes will go into effect on March 1, 2022, for the following commercial products, per user (in US Dollars):

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
• Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
• Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
• Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)
• Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36)

This increase will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. There are no changes to pricing for education and consumer products at this time.

Take action now!

With these new prices, the need to pay more attention to license management is now. It is recommended to contact your Microsoft license partner, to lock the current (old) prices into your Microsoft contract, as to guarantee these prices for the next coming period. Moreover, this can be the moment for the company to save money by eliminating unused or underused licenses.

* At launch in June 2011, Office 365 included Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Lync, Exchange, and InfoPath. since expanded to add other apps – in whole or in part – and entirely new capabilities including Access, Bookings, Delve, Forms, GroupMe, Kaizala, Lens, Lists, OneDrive, OneNote Class Notebook, Planner, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Publisher, SharePoint, Staff Hub, Stream, Sway, Teams, To-Do, Visio, Whiteboard, and Yammer.