Presales calendarIntroduction to M365 D365 Power Platform in new commerce experience CC
| New feature/change | Current experience | New commerce experience | Impact and benefits |
| Multi-year billing plans | Partners selling multi-year subscriptions must pay monthly or upfront. | Partners can also be billed annually for multi-year subscriptions. | Additional option to accommodate customers’ payment preferences. |
| Price list integration via API | Not available | Partner APIs can read monthly pricing lists instead of partner processing lists manually. | Easier automation of offer pricing within partners’ sales and billing systems. |
| Reconciliation file upgrades | Partners receive separate recon files once each month for license-and usage-based subscriptions. | All subscriptions are consolidated into one customizable recon file. Estimates of charges accrued during the month are provided and updated hourly. | Increased accounting efficiency and options for partners in customer billing. |
| Subscription ownership enforcement | Customers could buy from different partners to aggregate instances of the same SMB offer and buy multiple free trials. | Customer SKU limits will be enforced across multiple partner tenants, preventing, for example, a customer from purchasing multiple lower-cost SMB SKUs from different partners. | Prevents customers from “gaming” the system and ensures that partners will be able to maximize the revenue from each customer. |
| Suspend/resume subscriptions | To pause subscription, partner must suspend it, and then re-order it if subscription terminates after end of term. Partner billing is paused during suspension. | Partner can suspend and then resume a subscription at any time without cancellation or termination; partner billing continues during suspension. | Helps partner with dunning; subscription can be paused until customer remits overdue payment. |
| Promotions pricing transparency | No automatic notification of customers when promotional reduced pricing is included in a CSP transaction. | Government and state-owned entity customers will receive an email notification from Microsoft with details on the promotional discount and why that pricing was offered in the sale. | Provides price and discount transparency to these customers and supports anti-corruption regulations worldwide. Prepares customers to understand this alongside partner pricing.
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| Add-ons sold separately from base offers | Add-ons could be purchased only in conjunction with purchases of the add-ons’ base SKUs and were not displayed in the CSP catalog or shopping-cart UI. | Add-ons are listed in the catalog and shopping-cart UI along with base SKUs and can be purchased separately and independently. | More flexibility and ease of purchasing for partners and customers, along with upsell opportunities for partners.
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| Ability to schedule changes at subscription renewal | Not available | Partner can schedule different seat counts, SKU conversions, term-length renewal changes, renewals to different billing option. | Allows partner to manage subscriptions in advance instead of performing manual changes at renewal. Improves operational efficiency. |
| Mid-term subscription upgrades | Partner can upgrade only SMB subscription SKUs mid-term. | Partner can also upgrade Enterprise SKUs mid-term. | Gives partner more options to meet needs of larger customers. |
| Subscription term options for Windows 365 | Subscriptions available for annual term only. | Subscriptions available for monthly term only. | Option to try Windows 365 in new commerce with no long-term commitment and reduce seats if needed. |
| Automatic seat assignment with full upgrade | Only available with SMB SKUs. | Seats can also be assigned automatically at upgrade with Enterprise-level SKUs. | Easier and more efficient subscription management for larger customers. |
| Auto-renewal toggle option | Subscriptions are auto-renewed by default at end of annual term. | Partner can toggle auto-renewal and submit renewal manually. | Easier to manage renewals and plan ahead for subscriptions that will be terminating. |
| Cancellation policy enforcement | Partner could suspend the annual subscriptions at any time without penalty or early termination fee. However, partner did not have the option to cancel the subscription immediately. | Partner can cancel subscription with prorated billing/refund within first 72 hours after initial order or term renewal. After 72 hours, no cancellation available and no prorated billing/refund. Partner will be billed for the remainder of the annual term if monthly billing was chosen. | Encourages customer commitment to the full annual term of the subscription purchased and reduces churn; helps partner more effectively retain and forecast revenue; ensures ROI for provision of support and services. |
| Monthly-term subscriptions | Only annual-term subscriptions for license-based offers. | Subscriptions available on monthly terms at a premium price. Aligned with standard practices in MS Web Direct and across multiple industries. | Option for customers hesitant to commit to annual subscription; allows them to pay more for ability to cancel anytime with no further costs. Incentivizes customer commitment. Enables partner to monetize flexibility. |
Key dates
October 2021
- GA of seat-based offers in NCE
- Launch of incentives for all CSP partners
- Launch of NCE promotions for Direct Bill partners and Indirect Providers
March 2021
- 36 month Subscriptions availabe for Microsoft
- New purchases and renewables only available in NCE
- End of NCE promotions for Direct Bill Partners and Indirect Providers
October 2022
- Incentives only available for NCE transactions
Subsciption Ownership limits
- Existing license-based subscriptions enforced ownership limits, or the number of subscriptions a partner could purchase for a customer.
- New commerce implements a seat constraint across the provisioned SKUs.
- New commerce small business subscriptions with less than a 300 maximum will apply the maximum at the provisioned SKU level. A partner could have multiple small business subscriptions for a customer as long as the aggregate of the seat counts stays under the declared maximum.
- The maximum for small business applies regardless of where the customer’s provisioned SKU came
from, i.e.: multiple-partner or channel.
Pause, cancellation, and auto-renew
Pause
- Partner continues to be billed
- Subscription immediately enters “Disabled” status:
– Users can’t access services or files
– Admins can access data until the end of the Subscription term - Subscription can be made “Active” again
Cancellation
- Partner receives a pro-rated refund in the first 72 hours
- NO refunds after 72 hours
- Subscription immediately enters “Disabled” status:
– Users can’t access services or files
– Admins can access data for 90 days - Cancellation cannot be reversed
Auto-renew
On:
- Subscription renews at the end of the term
- 72-hour cancellation period restarts
Off:
- Subscription does not renew at the end of the term Subscription enters “Disabled” status
If you have any questions, check the FAQ file.
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