Microsoft Corporation has changed the terms of licensing: in order to develop the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, a new way to provision licenses – New Commerce Experience (NCE) – has been launched. It has been mandatory since March 2022 and includes Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Windows 365, and Power Platform.

What's new

NCE provides two types of customer commitments.

The first is a long-term commitment of 12 months, in which you can only increase the number of purchased licenses. This means that the client will pay for the selected number of licenses throughout the year (once a year or every month according to the client's choice). Let us notice that the previous CSP model assumed that the client could purchase any number of licenses, and later reduce their number by paying only for the fact of use.

The second type of commitment under the NCE program is short-term, lasting one month. This allows customers to adjust the number of licenses they purchase each month to suit their needs, but comes at a 20% higher cost.

To optimize the cost, without losing certain flexibility, the client has the opportunity to combine both options.

«Test» period

Microsoft Corporation gives users 72 hours (including the day of license purchase) to make a final choice. This means that during these 72 hours, the client can increase or decrease the number of licenses depending on the needs without additional costs. After these 72 hours, the number of licenses can only be increased.

How to avoid unnecessary expenses

The long-term nature of NCE contracts requires a clear understanding of specific business needs for specific licenses. Therefore, before making a purchase, you will need to:

1. conduct a competent assessment of your current needs and plans for the development of your business,
2. determine the list of Microsoft products that will be useful, as well as the optimal licensing packages and programs these packages can be purchased through ;
3. choose payment terms (monthly, annual).

The main recommendation of the vendor, in this case, is to transfer the mentioned activities to the responsibility of the IT optimization partner, who will carefully study the needs of the business and determine the correct number of licenses. Such a partner of Microsoft in Ukraine is Lizard Soft company, a leading player in the domestic IT market and an expert in Microsoft licensing field.